A Comparative Study on religion between America and China
Abstract: When religion jumps to life, it displays a startling quality. Religion has been linking people together while creating and preserving their culture’s world view for thousands of years. In America and China, religions are different. This paper will have some detail information to illustrate them so that you can have a brief idea about religion in them, and the differences between them and the reasons for the differences. 摘要：宗教从出现在人们的生活里,就扮演着重要的角色。宗教通过建立一种文化的世界观把人们紧密地联系起来。在美国和中国，两国宗教不尽相同，本文通过对比两国的宗教，让人们更多地了解宗教，了解两国宗教的具体在哪些方面不同以及引起这些不同原因。 Key words: Religion; America; China
In the history, religion is always not a thing that can be easily ignored. On the contrary, it is something on which we individuals as well as the governments put much attention. But, naturally, different countries surely have different situations on religion. And so, to be specific, some comparisons about the religion between America and China will be showed in the rest of this passage.
Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman
agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. It is a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects. In somehow, it is something one believes in and follows devotedly as well. Mostly, when defining religion, people tend to emphasize religions as structured social systems, institutions, or organizations.
Studying religion is very important. Since the “great” religions of the world have all evolved in historic times, it may be assumed that animistic emphases dominated the globe in the prehistoric era. In societies lacking any doctrinal establishment, a closed system of beliefs was less likely to flourish than an open one. There is, however, no ground for supposing that polytheistic and monotheistic ideas were excluded. But what is plain today—that no historically given creed has an inevitable appeal to the educated mind—had scarcely gained a place in scholarly argument more than 100 years ago.
There are three great world religions: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity. Buddhism was originated in India about 500B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama, who was also called Sakyamuni. Its doctrine is found in the Buddhist Scriptures. It is mainly distributed over Southern and Eastern Asia. Its symbol is the Lotus. Islam was founded in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 7th century by Mohammed. Mohammed preached that Allah is the
sole sovereign and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah. The doctrine of Islam is found in the Quran. Christianity was founded in 30 A.D. when the Apostles received the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the resurrection and gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had placed the Jewish idea of the Kingdom of God at the centre of his teaching, but give the idea a new spiritual universal meaning. Paul, the founder of Christian theology. Christianity established itself throughout the Roman Empire as a highly organized hierarchy separate from the State, between two periods of persecution in the latter half of the 1st and 3rd centuries. Christianity has molded the shape of Western civilization. Its doctrine is the Holy Bible. Christianity has three major groups: the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church.
The paper is to talk about religions in America and China. It includes the main religion, the features of religion in America, the effect of religion; and Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity in China. From this paper, we will know more information about religion in detail, and its effects.
To start with, there is an obvious similarity in religion between these two countries. That is, there are quite many religions that exist in them. Different people have different believes, so, in such two countries with large populations, the existence of various religions is normal, and, more and more associations are established by the large numbers of believers.
As a result, the law also protects the rights of the believers and makes that legal that all of the civilians have the right to choose whether to be a believer or not, in both these two countries. In addition, the governments will not interfere in their normal religious activities and give them whole freedom to develop themselves as long as they don’t do harm to the society.
Besides, as many associations have been established, beside the contribution to the believers' normal religious activities, these associations also make some big contribution to the society, such as the establishments of schools and charity organizations and the advocation of doing good for the society, which have been making much contributions to the developments and harmony of the societies.
It is almost universally acknowledged that the United States is probably the most religious country in the developed countries, not only in terms of the number of religious believers, but also in terms of Church attendance. While industrialization , consumerism, materialism, hedonism, and mass culture in other countries have all significantly diminished the importance of religion in the their societies, if not completely secularized it, this has not been the case in the United States, as has been attested by the religious revival of the past forty years in America. Such being the case, it can be comfortably argued that religion plays a crucial role in the shaping of American culture.
The people in the United Sates of America are great lovers of religion. Among more than three hundred million people, there are over three thousand religious denominations and sixty percent of the American people have religious beliefs, 36% of whom are Protestants; 24% of whom are Roman Catholic Church goers; 3% of whom are Jews and 2% of whom are Orthodox Church goers.
China is a multi-religious country. Taoism, Buddhism, Islamism, Protestantism and Catholicism have all developed quite a following in our country. Freedom of belief is a government policy, and normal religious activities are protected by the constitution.
When it comes to the differences of the religion between America and China, there are quite a lot to list.
Firstly of all, just as what has been mentioned before, many religions exist in the both US and China. However, when specific comparison is just made between the two countries, people in China who are believers of religions are far less than in US. As is known to all, China is a country with a large population of more than 1,300,000,000 , but the number of people who have a strong belief in religions is just a little more than 100,000,000,and that is only about 7.7%. However , US only has a population of no more than 330,000,000,while the number of believers in US is about 207,900,000,and that is about 63% according to a research in 2012. One is about 63% and the other is only about 7.7%.The difference
A-Comparative-Study-on-religion-between-America-and-China
