美国网友提问：为什么中国人信仰无神论？他们信仰什么？

中国人的信仰，是关乎乡土、祖先和民族的，这使得我们足够团结；中国人的信仰是依存于科学、实践和与时俱进的基础上的，这使得我们的政府和民众之间，可以彼此信任。在美版知乎Quora上，美国网友提问道：为什么“无神论”在中国被广泛接受？他们信仰什么？这引起各国网友的围观和热议，我们看看他们的观点。

问题

外国网友丹尼尔的回答

In fact, most Chinese people are not atheists. It is meaningless to evaluate Eastern religious beliefs under the western concept system.

事实上，大多数中国人并不是“无神论者”，在西方人的观念体系下评估东方宗教信仰是没有意义的。

Most Chinese people do not believe in God in Christianity or Allah in Islam, but they will kneel down and pray in front of any Buddha statue in any temple, and even pray in front of the graves of their parents and grandparents.

大多数中国人不相信基督教中的上帝，也不相信伊斯兰教中的安拉，但他们会在任意寺庙中的任意一尊佛像前跪下祈祷，甚至在他们的父母、祖父母的坟墓前祈祷。

The former may be regarded as a quasi Buddhist or a potential follower of Buddhism, while the latter goes beyond the definition of religion in the West - you believe that your late family members can use supernatural forces to protect you somewhere there, which is similar to the gods in religion.

前者可能被视为准佛教徒或佛教的潜在信徒，而后者则超出了西方对宗教的定义-你相信你已故的家庭成员可以在那里的某个地方用超自然的力量守护你，保护你，这正类似于宗教中的神灵。

This is ridiculous. I mean, if your late father was an uneducated poor farmer who had absolutely no remarkable achievements in his life, how could he become an all powerful God immediately after his death? But this represents their spiritual sustenance.

这虽然有些荒谬，我的意思是，如果你过世的父亲是一个没有受过教育的穷苦农民，一生中绝对没有什么显著的成就，他死后怎么会立刻变成一个全能的神呢？但这代表他们的一种精神寄托。

Generally speaking, in China, staunch atheists regard this as superstition. But you can't even persuade your parents to give up this idea.

一般来说，在中国，坚定的无神论者认为这是迷信，但你甚至无法说服自己的父母放弃这个想法。

This is just a glimpse of its complex beliefs. The religious concept of the Chinese people may be much more complicated than you think. As others have mentioned, this has a lot to do with ancient Chinese history and philosophy.

这只是其复杂信仰的一瞥。中国人的宗教观念可能比你想象的要复杂得多。正如其他人提到的，这和中国古代历史和哲学大有关联。

I would like to talk about the origin of China, the myth of origin in the eyes of Chinese ancestors.

我想谈谈中国的起源，中国祖先眼中的起源神话。

Pangu (Pangu) is considered to be the first person and the creator of the world. He is a giant from chaos, in which heaven and earth are nothing or a mixture of all things. He divided the chaos into two, thus dividing the world. At that time, the sky was about to collapse, so Pangu tried to support it. In doing so, he exhausted all his strength. Then he died. Then his eyes turned to the sun and the moon. His breath is the wind. His blood, his water. His blood vessels, rivers. His skin is muscle and soil. His edge, the mountains. His bones and teeth are minerals. His hair, forest. The world was thus born.

盘古(盘古) 被认为是第一个人和世界的创造者。他是一个来自混沌的巨人，在混沌中，天地是虚无或万物的混合体。他把混乱一分为二，从而把天地分开。当时天要塌了，所以盘古试着支撑它。他这样做了，耗尽了他所有的力气。之后他死了。然后他的眼睛转向太阳和月亮。他的呼吸，风。他的血，水。他的血管，河流。他的皮肤肌肉土壤。他的边缘，山脉。他的骨头牙齿矿物质。他的头发，森林。世界就这样诞生了。

Nuwa is the mother of mankind. She created humans from clay and protected them. One day, Gonggong and zhurong, the God of water and the God of fire were fighting. In this battle, heaven was broken. Man was bombarded by fire falling from a hole in the air. Nu Wa found a way to solve the problem. She melted five different colored stones (representing five elements: water, fire, earth, metal and wood), and repaired the cave with solidified lava. That's why you can see the colorful sky. In some versions, she used herself to repair the last crack and then died. After the sky recovered, man survived.

女娲则是人类之母。她用粘土创造了人类，并保护他们。有一天，共工和祝融，水神和火神正在战斗，在这场战斗中，天堂破裂了。人类被从空中的洞里落下来的火轰击。女娲找到了解决问题的方法。她熔化了五种不同颜色的石头（代表五种元素：水、火、土、金属和木头），并用凝固的熔岩修补了洞穴。这就是为什么你能看到五彩缤纷的天空。在一些版本中，她用自己来修补最后一条裂缝，然后死去。天空恢复后，人类幸存了下来。

Compared with Abraham's creation, in Chinese mythology, the creator of mankind and the world is not omnipotent, but a hero. You can say that they are stronger human beings. God must also fight against the disasters around him. They may die. The creator died for his creation, as did the mother of mankind. In short, God died for their creation. After that, humans had no God to rely on, and they had to fight for themselves, just as their creators did for them.

与亚伯拉罕创世记相比，在中国神话中，人类和世界的创造者不是万能的，而是英雄。你可以说，他们是更强壮的人类。神也必须与周围发生的灾难作斗争。他们可能会死。造物主为造物而死，人类之母也是如此。总之，神为他们的创造而死。在那之后，人类没有上帝可依赖，他们必须为自己而战，就像他们的创造者为他们所做的那样。

The story of Yan Huang traces the blood of the Chinese people back more than 4000 years. The Chinese people believe in ancestors, which is the basis for China's unity and nation building. Since the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, 5000 years ago, people have known that their ancestors are all Yanhuang and that they are all descendants of one ancestor. The belief in ancestors has enabled the Chinese people to maintain their national and origin characteristics no matter how many generations they have. This is also the main reason for their 5000 year tradition.

炎黄的故事更是将中国人的血脉追溯到四千多年前。中国人信仰祖宗，这个是中国团结建国的基础，因为从五千年的夏商周开始，人们就知道自己的祖宗都是炎黄，自己都是一个祖宗的后代。信仰祖先，使得中国人无论多少代，都保持自己的民族和来源特性，这也是他们五千年流传的最主要原因。

Almost every Chinese child knows these stories. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why many Chinese do not believe in the Almighty God.

几乎每个中国孩子都知道这些故事。也许这就是为什么许多中国人不相信全能的上帝的原因之一。

瑞典网友钱德拉的回答

Chinese people are not atheists. In fact, Chinese traditional culture is idealistic.

中国人不是无神论者，事实上，中国传统文化是理想主义的。

Chinese people have different views on myths from westerners, and their religious beliefs are more free. In fact, China has always been polytheistic and pantheistic. But the Chinese don't care what religion other people believe in. They just don't care and think it's none of their business.

中国人对神话的看法与西方人不同，他们的宗教信仰更自由。事实上，中国一直是多神教和泛神论的。但中国人不在乎其他人信仰什么宗教，他们只是不感兴趣，认为这不关他们的事。

The Chinese belief is not a symbolic God. The ancient Chinese said that "there is a God three feet above their heads", which means that there is a God three feet high on their heads (you can understand that the "God" here is not the God in Christianity). They believe that God is everywhere.

中国人的信仰不是一个象征性的神。古代中国人说举头三尺有神明”, 这意味着在他们头上有一个三英尺高的神（你可以理解这里的“神”不是基督教中的神），他们相信神无处不在。

In China, everyone has his own God. For example, many Chinese people have statues of the God of wealth and the kitchen god at home. Many people wear the necklace of Guanyin Bodhisattva or Maitreya, believing that these things will protect them and their families.

在中国，每个人都有自己的神。例如，许多中国人在家里有财神和灶神的雕像。许多人戴着观世音菩萨或弥勒的项链，相信这些东西会保护他们和他们的家人。

But for the Chinese, the most important "gods" are their ancestors. They have passed away, but their souls will guard them from heaven and protect them. Therefore, they always remind themselves of what they can and cannot do, because the souls of their ancestors have been watching them. When Chinese people do wrong, they usually say they feel ashamed because they have failed their ancestors. They believe that in everything they do, they are responsible for their children and grandchildren.

但对中国人来说，最重要的“神”是他们的祖先，他们已经去世，但灵魂会从天上守护他们，保护他们。因此，他们总是提醒自己可以做什么，不能做什么，因为他们祖先的灵魂一直在注视着他们。当中国人做错事时，他们通常会说他们感到羞愧，因为他们辜负了祖先。他们相信，在他们所做的每件事中，他们都对自己的子女和孙子负责。

Therefore, there is an old saying in China, "people are doing, and the sky is watching." Everyone has different definitions of the meaning of "God". The Chinese believe that the God who guards them from heaven is called "God", but "God" is only a symbol, and in the minds of most Chinese people, it does not mean any specific God of any religion.

所以，中国有一句老话，“人在做，天在看。”每个人对“神”的含义都有不同的定义。中国人认为，从天上守护他们的神被称为“老天爷”，但“老天爷”只是一个符号，在大多数中国人的心目中，并不意味着任何宗教的任何特定神。

Generally speaking, most Chinese believe in karma. As the Chinese people say, "good will be rewarded for good, and evil will be rewarded for evil", which means that "when you do good, you will be rewarded in the future, and when you do bad, you will be punished in the future". So most Chinese people have a strong sense of morality. Maybe part of the reason why China is one of the safest countries in the world is that they believe that no matter what they are doing, God is watching them. Sometimes they don't even know who he is. Maybe it is the Buddha, maybe the Jade Emperor, or Mazu. In the eyes of the Chinese people, the original intention of heaven is to call on people to be kind and do good deeds.

一般来说，大多数中国人相信因果报应。正如中国人所说“善有善报，恶有恶报”, 这意味着当你做好事时，你以后会得到奖励，当你做坏事时，你之后会受到惩罚。所以大多数中国人都有很强的道德感，也许中国是世界上最安全的国家之一的部分原因是他们相信，无论他们在做什么，上天都在看着他们，有时他们甚至不知道他是谁，也许是佛陀，也许是玉皇大帝，或者妈祖等其他人。在中国人眼里，上天的初衷是号召人们善良，做好事。

中国网友封显的回答

Good question! Generally speaking, the belief system of the Chinese people is not a religion in the Western sense. Let's take a look at some things that look like religion in China:

好问题！一般来说，中国人的信仰体系不是西方意义上的宗教。让我们来看看一些在中国看起来像宗教的事物：

Buddhism - the closest religion to China. Imported from India. It had a great influence on Chinese culture, but later its influence gradually declined, and it changed to the Chinese style Guanyin God to worship and pray.

佛教-最接近中国的宗教。从印度进口。对中国文化影响很大，但后来影响逐渐下降，改为中国风格的观音神来崇拜和祈祷。

Confucianism - not religion. It is the social order philosophy of Chinese behavior and relations. No one really worships them, but they must obey their parents and authority.

儒学-不是宗教。是中国行为和关系的社会秩序哲学。没有人真正崇拜，但必须服从父母和权威。

Taoism - philosophically profound, but with a small number of believers, it is impossible to establish a structured religion.

道教-哲学上深奥，但信仰人数较少，无法建立一个结构化的宗教。

Family - family - this is the true god worshipped by Chinese people. Not a divine God, but a spiritually powerful entity, they must respond. Everything starts and ends around the family. Confucian filial piety is the key component, and the parent-child relationship is sacred. "24 stories of filial piety: 24 examples of filial piety" is a classic collection of fables, which still teaches children how to respect their parents. This is an extension of traditional Chinese ancestor worship.

家庭-家庭-这是中国人崇拜的真正的上帝。不是一个神圣的神，但却是一个精神上强大的实体，他们必须予以回应。一切都围绕着家庭开始和结束。儒家孝道是其中的关键组成部分，亲子关系是神圣的。《24个孝道故事：24个孝的典范》是一部经典的寓言集，至今仍在教导孩子们如何尊敬父母。这是中国传统祖先崇拜的延伸。

So Chinese people go to school mainly to improve their family life. They find jobs and start businesses to support their parents and extended families. Then, they have children to support their parents and take care of their old age. And thus the cycle repeats. This is a Chinese religion.

所以中国人上学主要是为了改善家庭生活生活。他们找到工作，开始创业，以支持父母和大家庭。然后，他们生孩子赡养父母，照顾他们的晚年。因此循环重复。这是中国式的宗教。