Will Christianity replace Buddhism in China? by Jay Best
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- The numbers
- According to Wolfram Alpha, Chinese Universalism is believed by 29% and Buddhism and Christianity is tied at 8.5% so possibly Christianity may have edged out Buddhism - but really?
- Until any religion is edging out Chinese Universalism then you might have some sort of claim that a particular religion is having an impact on china but surely by any possible logic 8.5% is not really what I would call "Jesus conquering"
- Put another way, It is like saying USA is 4.5% of the population and has edged out Indonesia who only has 4% of the worlds population. When will the "USA conquor" the world. Hmmm. Actually that might be a different / more believable question / bad analogy.
- Bad mathematics section
- If we take that Christian Missionary work started in 635AD then we can make some grossly simplistic extrapolation from 0 to 8.5% by 2012 then it has grown at 0.06 of one percent in that time.
- If we assume a steady growth across that time (again stupid to do so) then it would 1666 years until "Jesus won".
- But you would ignore variation of uptake (eg missionary effectiveness) so this is the closest I could think of that might get close.
- BUT you would have to do the same extrapolation of all the other religions simultaneously so it is lame maths.
- Um.... from a non Christian perspective hearing Christians say when will "Jesus conquer something" it sounds the same as (and possibly as offensive as) me saying "when will Richard Dawkins defeat the christians?" or when will "Muhammad conquer" the USA?
- Chinese may not like the idea that someone thinks of them being conquered...and from a Christian perspective maybe Mathew 5:5 might be a smarter and more classy route - something about meek, and conquering the earth or something?
- From a logical perspective, you can understand why questions that contain pre-suppositions are always much lower quality questions than those which don't? *
- A bit of irony.
- I try not to be arrogant or assume
- I guess I get a bit frustrated when I see a standard Euro-American / Western view of the world and a presupposition that what we have been brought up with is the correct way, when we really are being overly arrogant given that China and India are far greater populations and represent such a large culture, that when I am presented with a people and a history I am not familiar, my first instinct is not to think, "My religion or my culture must be the correct one, I wonder when I will conquer them?".
- It is my desire to really listen, to question my own assumptions, and see all the ways that Buddhism or Atheism or Christianity or being an idiot or whatever is greater than my current world view.
- Because, by me taking this approach, it doesn't become me trying to beat another culture, I am able to take the very best parts of it, actively think about why I have my own belief, and change my belief for something greater than either was to start with.
- Actually you Christians sum up my approach quite nicely in Ephesians 4:2 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."
- So in summary, it is possible that the Buddhism and Christianity in China may fluctuate, though both have long and proud traditions in that country and changing a religion can be reasonably rare thing as so many people grip on tight to their beliefs.
- And also we need to put 8.5 % into context.
Source
Christianity-replace-Buddhism-in-China quora.com
