Confucianism shows that 'God' is ultimately obsolete

[Doktor Bollix]

Heaven represents the unknown and fundamental forces of the universe to Confucianists.

That's most peoples definition of God if asked - the unexplainable.

 

[plornive]

That's most peoples definition of God if asked - the unexplainable.

God is just one explanation of the unexplainable. If you ask people in China what the unexplainable is, they will generally *not* say god. There are so many insane explanations for the unknown that I can think of --- god is just one of them.

You cannot validly equivocate all religions to monotheism.

Also, "worshipping" one's ancestors is not the same as aknowledging that a supreme being exists, as is part of the Abrahamic definition of "worship".

Atheism is the "disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods". Confucianism does not include the idea of a 'God'. The only reason people think it does is because of the unfortunate translations in many texts.

 

[HappyScrappy]

my own personal explanation involves spiders. thousands and thousands of angry, bitter, and vindictive spiders.
one day the answer will come out, and we will all be living in fear for the rest of our days.
you'll see. mark my words - you'll see.

 

[plornive]

I would just like to add my own personal explanation. We have 4 observable dimensions that are interdependent (space and time). Maybe we have 3 extra unobserved dimensions that do all of the unexplained things people attribute to 'God'. I say these three extra dimensions are hot. Get into their world and you can join them in a group 69 ring and become the 4th unobserved dimension... Zeus!

 

[ajc]

Confucius say,

Man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day.

 

[dballer]

Confucianism is an example of a system of social and ethical philosophy that conformed and conforms many people in China without the idea of a 'God'. It defines familial relationships, friendly relationships, political relationships and even international political relationships between nations --- all without the idea of a 'God'. Confucian principles are what the morals and laws of China are largely based on, similar to how many of our morals and laws are based on biblical ideas (*whether these ideas originated in the bible or not*).

This is a blaring illustration of the fact that 'God' is one specific idea that is not necessary for society to conform to a set of moral standards. In other words, atheism does not lack morals/order/conformity.

My point is not that we should all do what confucius said. I will continue to eat large chunks of bloody meat and not use chopsticks, thank you. I'm also not saying that christianity is obsolete in western society right now.

My main point is that society does not need a deity to worship in order to have morals, order and conformity. 'God' is, *ultimately*, an obsolete idea.

As a background, most Chinese distinuish between 3 types of religion: one for Confucianism, one for Taoism and one for Buddhism. Buddhism came *after* Confucianism, so Buddhism plays less of a role in Chinese society than Confucianism. Taoism is a philisophical religion that does not deal with death in any detail. Almost all Chinese are Confucianists, while many are Taoists and some are Buddhists.

this post explains alot about you.

 

[HappyScrappy]

I would just like to add my own personal explanation. We have 4 observable dimensions that are interdependent (space and time). Maybe we have 3 extra unobserved dimensions that do all of the unexplained things people attribute to 'God'. I say these three extra dimensions are hot. Get into their world and you can join them in a group 69 ring and become the 4th unobserved dimension... Zeus!

if you are in only one dimension and a line in the 2nd dimension cruises by, then you would notice a point (although since you are there, technically you also fill that point space).

if you are in the second dimension, and a sphere from the 3rd dimension comes through your plane, you would see a circle changing in size as it passes. first small, then growing larger, and then going back down in size to a point, and then gone.

so, since we as humans reside in 3 dimensional space, the same applies - if anything were in a greater space than us, we would see signs of it - shapes that were strangely changing, coming and disappearing. I personally never see these shapes.

then you say, well duh, they are just invisible - fantastic - so we don't see them, but they would still interact in our space - and again, I've never felt any interaction with invisible things.

so then you say again, duh, they are both invisible and they can pass through anything in our dimension by... magic.

so if you had something that was both unseen to us, and also couldn't be detected - why would it then need to be in another dimension? sounds an awful lot like that magical big man in the sky.

 

[kamae]

All of you will go to Hell for your comments against God. May the Lord take mercy on your souls.

rotflmfao

 

[plornive]

so if you had something that was both unseen to us, and also couldn't be detected - why would it then need to be in another dimension? sounds an awful lot like that magical big man in the sky.

I think I get your point, and I think you realized my idea was basically a parody.

Yes it does sound like that big man in the sky. And if you had that big man in the sky, you wouldn't need those dimensions, either. Both ideas are unquantifiably absurd, that was kind of the point.

 

[CRNT93]

Well,if there is ancestor worship in confusianism do they
believe in the afterlife?Do their ancestors still affect their
reality?