Gary Welsh

Welcome to the forum. I agree with you, that is more better to be challenged than comforted. I hope you will be treated politely and respectfully here.

No one really knows how or when atheism originated, just like no one knows how or when theism originated. When did people start believing in gods? Who knows. 30,000 BC? 100,000 BC? There's really no way to tell for sure.

I suspect that atheism began when people gathered around and started telling stories of gods, ghosts, ancestor-spirits, and other supernatural events, and some guy in the back said, "Uh, I'm not buying any of this. Where's the proof?"

Before that, it wouldn't have been called atheism. It wouldn't have been defined in terms of a stance on belief or non-belief in gods. What do you call someone who has never heard of gods and doesn't believe in gods, and has never even considered the concept of a god?

Giorgia

If you've had a few days to digest everything else said here, you might enjoy this site-referral from another thread:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/index.shtml

repoman

Rousseau,

you have had stigmata?!? What is that like? Do you have any explanations as to how that happened in a scientific sense?

I find it hard to imagine someone so formerly hardcore is now an infidel. But props to you for the change.

DMB

I am told by an Indian friend that atheism goes back some 3000 years in India.

kctan

Ancestral worship is not a religion. It's a practise. It's called appeasing the dead for some while treating the dead like they are alive for others. They are not worshipped as gods or goddesses.

Ancestral worship aren't practiced much nowadays especially in mainland China. Even in other parts of the world, you don't find many chinese still doing the practice of ancestral worship. My family does burn the hell bank notes (during the seventh lunar month) to the ancestors but it's more as a festival observance rather then as a practice.

Actually the worship of deities have replaced most of the ancestral worship practice. We have the Tu Di, Chai Seng, Guang Ying, Ma Zu, Shan Chai, Ta Ye, Er Ye etc... so many that to try to list all is like trying to list out all the surnames. The fact that each localities (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia etc...) have their own special local deities adds even more to the list & to the confusion of just what role each deity plays in the live of the people.

Yes you're right in saying that we chinese are definitely very superstitious & theism is one of the earliest form of philosophy we had too such that Buddhism & Taoism turns from being philosopical into theistic in no time at all.

Rousseau_CHN

KCTan said:
that is true but there is something positive to be said about Chinese superstition. While Greek superstition is passive, Chinese superstition is active.

There is no escaping fate in the Greek superstition. Oedipus tried very hard to escape the dreadful fate that awaited him, but to no avail, he married his mother and killed his father.

On the Chinese side, however, there are things that you can do to prevent bad omen. A seer once told my great grandfather would die at a certain age, unless he returned to the land oh his birth. He did, and lived to a ripe age of 90. When asked if he thinks the seer was wrong, he replied, "my destiny in my hand."

No ancient Greeks could muster a courage to say the same thing.