China: What If Atheism Is a Religion?

[rug]

China’s Communist Youth League posted a video to advocate atheism.



By DD Wu
May 13, 2017

China’s Communist Youth League, the cradle for generations of Chinese Communist leaders, tends to be more and more active in the “battlefield” of public opinion, among the youth in particular. Recently, the Communist Youth League launched a new battle on religions: it posted a self-made video on its Weibo, Chinese equivalent of Twitter, to promote atheism.

The 11-minute video is called “What If Atheism Is a Religion?” Different from traditional Chinese communist propaganda or Western religious promotion, the video employed the style of satire and funny Japanese comics in order to cater to the contemporary young internet generation.

The video proposed the following fundamental questions:

What if atheism is a religion?

If atheism is a religion, who will be the icons?

Who saved the world, God or the people?

What kind of activities do atheists conduct?

The video starts as a young, innocent man meets a group of atheists dressed in white robes. The atheist “pastor” tells the young man that every day is a miracle to the atheist because the “atheist religion” believes that a day without God is the day with a miracle.

http://thediplomat.com/2017/05/china-what-if-atheism-is-a-religion/

The video's in Chinese but it's worth 11 1/2 minutes.

[still_one]

1. Does religion require an all powerful entity that people worship?

[rug]

3. Only if it smiles.

[still_one]

4. ..............................................

[Thomas Hurt]

2. believes that a day without God is the day with a miracle

(scratches head)

well that does sound like some religionist logic...

A day without the supernatural is a supernatural event....

[Igel]

5. The problem starts with strict definitions.

Taoism and Confucianism have strict, life-organizing philosophies that serve to organize life at the social and state level. Adherence to them is part of normative culture.

For all intents and purposes they're religions in every respect except for not having a supernatural basis.

There are weaker, more secularized deistic religions than those.

Communist ideology in the USSR had the same role, with required readings, meetings, study sessions, and regulating authorities. To serve the same purposes as the Oryhodox Church with the state and politicians being the "church". This was intentional, to avoid divided loyalties and shared social power.

A specific variety of atheism with secular rites can serve can serve the same purpose.