当被问起religion，大家都回答什么？

[alex_lz2005]

今天上课，老师为了举例说明庆祝很多跟宗教有关的节日已经被各个种族和宗教认同，不一定是为了宗教了理由，是为了peace，love等，在征得所有人同意后估计各个宗教人数，当问到俺们的时候，大多数同胞都选择了non－religion。俺突然想到Confucianism能否适用呢？大家来谈谈。。。

[alex_lz2005]

zt
Is Confucianism a religion?

It is debatable whether Confucianism should be called a religion. While it prescribes a great deal of ritual, little of it could be construed as worship or meditation in a formal sense. Confucius occasionally made statements about the existence of other-worldly beings that sound distinctly agnostic and humanistic to European and American ears. Thus, Confucianism is often considered an ethical tradition and not a religion.

Its effect on Chinese and other East Asian societies and cultures has been immense and parallels the effects of religious movements, seen in other cultures. Those who follow the teachings of Confucius say that they are comforted by it. It includes a great deal of ritual and (in its Neo-Confucian formulation) gives a comprehensive explanation of the world, of human nature, etc. Moreover, religions in Chinese culture are not mutually exclusive entities — each tradition is free to find its specific niche, its field of specialisation. One can be a Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Shintoist or Buddhist and still profess Confucianist beliefs.

Although Confucianism may include ancestor worship, sacrifice to ancestral spirits and an abstract celestial deity, and the deification of ancient kings and even Confucius himself, all these features can be traced back to non-Confucian Chinese beliefs established long before Confucius and, in this respect, make it difficult to claim that such rituals make Confucianism a religion.

Generally speaking, Confucianism is not considered a religion by Chinese or other East Asian people. Part of this attitude may be explained by the stigma placed on many "religions" as being superstitious, illogical, or unable to deal with modernity. Many Buddhists state that Buddhism is not a religion, but a philosophy, and this is partially a reaction to negative popular views of religion. Similarly, Confucians maintain that Confucianism is not a religion, but rather a moral code or philosophic world view.

The question of whether Confucianism is a religion, or otherwise, is ultimately a definitional problem. If the definition used is worship of supernatural entities, the answer may be that Confucianism is not a religion, but then this definition could also be used to argue that many traditions commonly held to be religious (Buddhism, Taoism, etc.) are also not, in fact, religions. If, on the other hand, a religion is defined as (for example) a belief system that includes moral stances, guides for daily life, systematic views of humanity and its place in the universe, etc., then Confucianism most definitely qualifies. As with many such important concepts, the definition of religion is quite contentious. Herbert Fingarette's Confucius: The Secular as Sacred is a good treatment of this issue.

[alex_lz2005]

zt

Themes in Confucian thought

A simple way to appreciate Confucian thought is to consider it as being based on varying levels of honesty. In practice, the elements of Confucianism accumulated over time and matured into the following forms:

Ritual

Ritual (lǐ, 禮) originally signified "to sacrifice" in a religious ceremony. In Confucianism the term was soon extended to include secular ceremonial behaviour before being used to refer to the propriety or politeness which colours everyday life. Rituals were codified and treated as an all-embracing system of norms. Confucius himself tried to revive the etiquette of earlier dynasties, but following his death he himself became regarded as the great authority on ritual behaviour. (Cf. contemporary term lǐmào 禮貌, "polite"; mào 貌 = "appearance")

Relationships

One theme central to Confucianism is that of relationships, and the differing duties arising from the different status one held in relation to others. Individuals are held to simultaneously stand in different degrees of relationship with different people, namely, as a junior in relation to their parents and elders, and as a senior in relation to their younger siblings, students, and others. While juniors are considered in Confucianism to owe strong duties of reverence and service to their seniors, seniors also have duties of benevolence and concern toward juniors. This theme consistently manifests itself in many aspects of East Asian cultures even to this day, with extensive filial duties on the part of children toward parents and elders, and great concern of parents toward their children.

Social harmony--the great goal of Confucianism--thus results from every individual knowing his or her place in the social order and playing his or her part well.When Duke Jing of Qi asked about government, by which he meant proper administration so as to bring social harmony, Confucius replied, "There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son." (Analects XII, 11, tr. Legge).

Filial piety

Filial piety, or filial devotion (xiào 孝) is considered among the greatest of virtues and must be shown towards both the living and the dead (ancestors). The term "filial", meaning "of a child", denotes the respect and obedience that a child, originally a son, should show to his parents, especially to his father. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series of five relationships or five cardinal relationships (五倫 Wǔlún):

Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. Such duties were also extended to the dead, where the living stood as sons to their deceased family. This led to the veneration of ancestors.

In time, filial piety was also built into the Chinese legal system: a criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers exercised enormous power over their children. Much the same was true of other unequal relationships.

The main source of our knowledge of the importance of filial piety is The Book of Filial Piety, a work attributed to Confucius but almost certainly written in the third century BCE. Filial piety has continued to play a central role in Confucian thinking to the present day.

Loyalty

Loyalty (zhōng, 忠) is the equivalent of filial piety on a different plane, between ruler and minister. It was particularly relevant for the social class, to which most of Confucius' students belonged, because the only way for an ambitious young scholar to make his way in the Confucian Chinese world was to enter a ruler's civil service. Like filial piety, however, loyalty was often subverted by the autocratic regimes of China. Confucius had advocated a sensitivity to the realpolitik of the class relations that existed in his time; he did not propose that "might makes right", but that a superior who had received the "Mandate of Heaven" (see below) should be obeyed because of his moral rectitude.

In later ages, however, emphasis was placed more on the obligations of the ruled to the ruler, and less on the ruler's obligations to the ruled.

Humaneness

Confucius was concerned with people's individual development, which he maintained took place within the context of human relationships. Ritual and filial piety are the ways in which one should act towards others from an underlying attitude of humaneness. Confucius' concept of humaneness (rén, 仁) is probably best expressed in the Confucian version of the (Ethic of reciprocity) Golden Rule: "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others;".

Rén also has a political dimension. If the ruler lacks rén, Confucianism holds, it will be difficult if not impossible for his subjects to behave humanely. Rén is the basis of Confucian political theory: it presupposes an autocratic ruler, exhorted to refrain from acting inhumanely towards his subjects. An inhumane ruler runs the risk of losing the "Mandate of Heaven", the right to rule. Such a mandateless ruler need not be obeyed. But a ruler who reigns humanely and takes care of the people is to be obeyed strictly, for the benevolence of his dominion shows that he has been mandated by heaven. Confucius himself had little to say on the will of the people, but his leading follower Mencius did state on one occasion that the people's opinion on certain weighty matters should be polled. (See also the article "ubuntu".)

The gentleman

The term "Jūnzǐ" or "Chun-Tzu" (君子) is a term crucial to classical Confucianism. Literally meaning "son of a ruler", "prince" or "noble", the ideal of a "gentleman", "proper man", "exemplary person" or "perfect man" is that for which Confucianism exhorts all people to strive. A succinct description of the "perfect man" is one who "combine[s] the qualities of saint, scholar, and gentleman" (CE). (In modern times, the masculine bias in Confucianism may have weakened, but the same term is still used; the masculine translation in English is also traditional and still frequently used.) A hereditary elitism was bound up with the concept, and gentlemen were expected to act as moral guides to the rest of society. They were to:

* cultivate themselves morally;
* participate in the correct performance of ritual;
* show filial piety and loyalty where these are due;
* cultivate humanity, or benevolence.

The great exemplar of the perfect gentleman is Confucius himself. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of his life was that he was never awarded the high official position which he desired, from which he wished to demonstrate the general well-being that would ensue if humane persons ruled and administered the state.

The opposite of the Jūnzǐ was the Xiǎorén (小人), literally "small person" or "petty person." Like English "small", the word in this context in Chinese can mean petty in mind and heart, narrowly self-interested, greedy, superficial, and materialistic.

Rectification of Names

Confucius believed that social disorder stemmed from failure to perceive, understand, and deal with reality. Fundamentally, then, social disorder stems from the failure to call things by their proper names, and his solution was "Rectification of Names/Terms" (zhèngmíng, 正名). He gave an explanation of zhengming to one of his disciples.

Tsze-lu said, "The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?" The Master replied, "What is necessary is to rectify names." "So! indeed!" said Tsze-lu. "You are wide of the mark! Why must there be such rectification?" The Master said, "How uncultivated you are, Yu! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve. If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot. Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect." (Analects XIII, 3, tr. Legge)

Xun Zi chapter (22) "On the Rectification of Names" claims the ancient sage kings chose names (ming 名 "name; appellation; term") that directly corresponded with actualities (shi 實 "fact; real; true; actual"), but later generations confused terminology, coined new nomenclature, and thus could no longer distinguish right from wrong.

Confucianism和马克思主义一样是一种思想体系,不是宗教,不要混为一谈.

[alex_lz2005]

呵呵，欢迎2008！。。。

佛教BUDDHISM和道教TAOISM算.

作者: alex_lz2005

呵呵，欢迎2008！。。。

你好,忙些什么?上神学院做牧师是不错的行当.

[jedi]

作者: alex_lz2005

今天上课，老师为了举例说明庆祝很多跟宗教有关的节日已经被各个种族和宗教认同，不一定是为了宗教了理由，是为了peace，love等，在征得所有人同意后估计各个宗教人数，当问到俺们的时候，大多数同胞都选择了non－religion。俺突然想到Confucianism能否适用呢？大家来谈谈。。。

通常,我会自豪的说我没有宗教信仰.

[ororo]

作者: alex_lz2005

今天上课，老师为了举例说明庆祝很多跟宗教有关的节日已经被各个种族和宗教认同，不一定是为了宗教了理由，是为了peace，love等，在征得所有人同意后估计各个宗教人数，当问到俺们的时候，大多数同胞都选择了non－religion。俺突然想到Confucianism能否适用呢？大家来谈谈。。。

无神论是atheist.
我们老师也和我们讨论过,很幸运,我有宗教,不尴尬.

[alex_lz2005]

作者: Beijing2008

你好,忙些什么?上神学院做牧师是不错的行当.

在做coop的final project。。。
虽然我也觉得儒家拿来做教也有点说不过去。。。
不过总觉对于国人来说无信仰其实并不是很准确。
道教的确是中国本地土生土长的，而且影响也很大，只不过想起Tao总想起牛鼻子老道。。。
正如上文转的那样，儒家当初就是欧洲人用来描述中国的社会及文化情况，后又被东亚地区借来使用。偶考虑儒家倒是有可能是最适合的。。。或者儒家道教佛教的混和体也不错。。。

[alex_lz2005]

作者: ororo

无神论是atheist.
我们老师也和我们讨论过,很幸运,我有宗教,不尴尬.

atheism其实有贬义成分在里面。不知道在北美一般的用法里是否还有歧义。

zt
Atheism, defined as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. In its broadest definition, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, sometimes called nontheism. Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic.

Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.

The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion. With the spread of freethought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and was sometimes used as a self-description by atheists.

[zzz]

无，呵呵。
我想，包括xx主义，都算不得的。

[Lori]

A native person told me that it would be a good anwser if I said " religion is an accident of birth" when being asked this question.

[alex_lz2005]

作者: Lori

A native person told me that it would be a good anwser if I said " religion is an accident of birth" when being asked this question.

呵呵，tricky one！。。。

作者: ororo

无神论是atheist.
我们老师也和我们讨论过,很幸运,我有宗教,不尴尬.

不信仰宗教，没什么可尴尬的。

[大胃贝克汉姆]

算是佛教徒吧!

[crispwolf]

作者: jedi

通常,我会自豪的说我没有宗教信仰.

same　信仰自由嘛

[cdegt]

不想信教的，可以自称佛教徒，不然会有很多人要来打救你的，不胜其烦。

[alex_lz2005]

作者: cdegt

不想信教的，可以自称佛教徒，不然会有很多人要来打救你的，不胜其烦。

嗯。。。这个有用。。。

[jessiec123]

作者: Lori

A native person told me that it would be a good anwser if I said " religion is an accident of birth" when being asked this question.

Totally agree.