Do you think "Religion" is a learned behaivor?

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This last weekend I was at the county fair and there was a booth set up evangelizing the practice of Falun Gong. I did not know to much about Falun Gong except that it is really popular in China and is being actively being persecuted and repressed by the People's Republic. I'm always for broadening my horizons so I stopped by the both, listened to the marketing pitch and grabbed a flyer. It's a mix of Buddhist meditation techniques paired with very Christian moral guidance with core tenants of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. But they are trying really hard to NOT be a religion. No mention of god, cosmic harmony, the afterlife or any of that... just some solid morality and some useful meditation.

But something stood out to me. Falun Gong is young- introduced in 1992 and they claim that in the 7 years after introduction it gained 100 million followers at which point the People's Republic got scared and started trying to stamp it out.

I got home thinking "100 million people in 7 years... how the fuck does something get that popular that quick?" Some reading and a little research gave me my answer. Atheism.

I grew up going to church every week. I sang in the choir and went through all the motions but my heart was not really in it. The classical Christian imagery of God as an old man with long beard and white robes, angels sitting on clouds playing harps, pointy horned devil sitting on a fiery thrown below... it all seemed like the plot to a bad fantasy novel.

I did not consider myself Christian. I recognized the value of the core teachings (love thy neighbour, do unto others, learn to forgive your self and others, etc.) and I recognized the value of the community... but a lot of the Christian mythology seemed like a pile of horse shit. (years later and a few real religious experiences later I have a more refined view... I'm talking about what I thought at 13)

So I did not consider myself Christian... but not in a million years would I ever have called myself an Atheist. I rejected a lot of the Christian mythology because in my heart I knew that the real answers to the big questions were far more fantastic. I did not consider myself Christian not because I did not believe in God... I did not consider myself Christian because I believed in a much grander vision of creation. Somewhere in my core I had religious beliefs that I could deny.

What does this have to with China? What I had not realized about China is the lack of religion. Officially china is 73% Atheist. Where as the rest of the world trends to a Atheism rate of 5%-15%. Everyone in the world knows that the 73% number is utter bullshit. The reality is that Chinese people self report as Atheist to avoid persecution.

What happened with Falun Gong was that it was a religion that was not a religion. It was a religion that the Chinese people though they could get away with and so they flocked to it in droves.

So my theory is that at our core we all feel a connection to the universe and that religions will arise on their own if a void exists.

Do you think believing in region is something people do because that is how they were raised? Or do you think people have an inherent sense of "something more" and form religions in an attempt to resolve those feelings. This last weekend I was at the county fair and there was a booth set up evangelizing the practice of Falun Gong. I did not know to much about Falun Gong except that it is really popular in China and is being actively being persecuted and repressed by the People's Republic. I'm always for broadening my horizons so I stopped by the both, listened to the marketing pitch and grabbed a flyer. It's a mix of Buddhist meditation techniques paired with very Christian moral guidance with core tenants of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. But they are trying really hard to NOT be a religion. No mention of god, cosmic harmony, the afterlife or any of that... just some solid morality and some useful meditation. But something stood out to me. Falun Gong is young- introduced in 1992 and they claim that in the 7 years after introduction it gained 100 million followers at which point the People's Republic got scared and started trying to stamp it out. I got home thinking "100 million people in 7 years... how the fuck does something get that popular that quick?" Some reading and a little research gave me my answer. Atheism. I grew up going to church every week. I sang in the choir and went through all the motions but my heart was not really in it. The classical Christian imagery of God as an old man with long beard and white robes, angels sitting on clouds playing harps, pointy horned devil sitting on a fiery thrown below... it all seemed like the plot to a bad fantasy novel. I did not consider myself Christian. I recognized the value of the core teachings (love thy neighbour, do unto others, learn to forgive your self and others, etc.) and I recognized the value of the community... but a lot of the Christian mythology seemed like a pile of horse shit. (years later and a few real religious experiences later I have a more refined view... I'm talking about what I thought at 13) So I did not consider myself Christian... but not in a million years would I ever have called myself an Atheist. I rejected a lot of the Christian mythology because in my heart I knew that the real answers to the big questions were far more fantastic. I did not consider myself Christian not because I did not believe in God... I did not consider myself Christian because I believed in a much grander vision of creation. Somewhere in my core I had religious beliefs that I could deny. What does this have to with China? What I had not realized about China is the lack of religion. Officially china is 73% Atheist. Where as the rest of the world trends to a Atheism rate of 5%-15%. Everyone in the world knows that the 73% number is utter bullshit. The reality is that Chinese people self report as Atheist to avoid persecution. What happened with Falun Gong was that it was a religion that was not a religion. It was a religion that the Chinese people though they could get away with and so they flocked to it in droves. So my theory is that at our core we all feel a connection to the universe and that religions will arise on their own if a void exists.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

I disagree. If you took a population of humans without contact with other humans, educated them well and taught them that the natural world is vast and complex and we are one small part of it people would be at peace. Ignorance and fear breed doubt and that makes some want an answer to it all. I tend to think of it like children, if you raise them right they will become independent healthy adults who don't rely on you for sustenance.

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