A-Comparative-Study-on-religion-between-America-and-China

1、A Comparative Study on religion between America and China Abstract: When religion jumps to life, it displays a startling quality. Religion has been linking people together while creating and preserving their cultures world view for thousands of years. In America and China, religions are different. T

2、his paper will have some detail information to illustrate them so that you can have a brief idea about religion in them, and the differences between them and the reasons for the differences.摘要：宗教從出現(xiàn)在人們的生活里,就扮演著重要的角色。宗教通過建立一種文化的世界觀把人們緊密地聯(lián)系起來。在美國(guó)和中國(guó)，兩國(guó)宗教不盡相同，本文通過對(duì)比兩國(guó)的宗教，讓人們更多地了解宗教，了解兩國(guó)宗教的具體在哪些方面不同以及引起

3、這些不同原因。 Key words: Religion; America; ChinaIn the history, religion is always not a thing that can be easily ignored. On the contrary, it is something on which we individuals as well as the governments put much attention. But, naturally, different countries surely have differentsituations on religio

4、n.And so, to be specific, some comparisons about the religion between America and China will be showed in the rest of this passage.Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually

5、involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. It is a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects. In somehow, it is something one believes in and follows devotedly as

6、 well. Mostly, when defining religion, people tend to emphasize religions as structured social systems, institutions, or organizations.Studying religion is very important. Since the “great” religions of the world have all evolved in historic times, it may be assumed that animistic emphases dominated

7、 the globe in the prehistoric era. In societies lacking any doctrinal establishment, a closed system of beliefs was less likely to flourish than an open one. There is, however, no ground for supposing that polytheistic and monotheistic ideas were excluded. But what is plain todaythat no historically

8、 given creed has an inevitable appeal to the educated mindhad scarcely gained a place in scholarly argument more than 100 years ago.There are three great world religions: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity. Buddhism was originated in India about 500B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama, who was also called Sakyamun

9、i. Its doctrine is found in the Buddhist Scriptures. It is mainly distributed over Southern and Eastern Asia. Its symbol is the Lotus. Islam was founded in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 7th century by Mohammed. Mohammed preached that Allah is the sole sovereign and Mohammed is the messenger of

10、Allah. The doctrine of Islam is found in the Quran. Christianity was founded in 30 A.D. when the Apostles received the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the resurrection and gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had placed the Jewish idea of the Kingdom of God at the centre of his teaching, but give

11、 the idea a new spiritual universal meaning. Paul, the founder of Christian theology. Christianity established itself throughout the Roman Empire as a highly organized hierarchy separate from the State, between two periods of persecution in the latter half of the 1st and 3rd centuries. Christianity

12、has molded the shape of Western civilization. Its doctrine is the Holy Bible. Christianity has three major groups: the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church.The paper is to talk about religions in America and China. It includes the main religion, the features o

13、f religion in America, the effect of religion; and Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity in China. From this paper, we will know more information about religion in detail, and its effects.To start with, there is an obvious similarity in religion between these two countries. That is, there are quite

14、many religions that exist in them. Different people have different believes, so, in such two countries with large populations, the existence of various religions is normal, and, more and more associations are established by the large numbers of believers. As a result, the law also protects the right

15、s of the believers and makes that legal that all of the civilians have the right to choose whether to be a believer or not, in both these two countries. In addition, the governments will not interfere in their normal religious activities and give them whole freedom to develop themselves as long as t

16、hey dont do harm to the society. Besides, as many associations have been established, beside the contribution to the believers normal religious activities, these associations also make some big contribution to the society, such as the establishments of schools and charity organizations and the advoc

17、ation of doing good for the society, which have been making much contributions to the developments and harmony of the societies. It is almost universally acknowledged that the United States is probably the most religious country in the developed countries, not only in terms of the number of religiou

18、s believers, but also in terms of Church attendance. While industrialization , consumerism, materialism, hedonism, and mass culture in other countries have all significantly diminished the importance of religion in the their societies, if not completely secularized it, this has not been the case in

19、the United States, as has been attested by the religious revival of the past forty years in America. Such being the case, it can be comfortably argued that religion plays a crucial role in the shaping of American culture.The people in the United Sates of America are great lovers of religion. Among m

20、ore than three hundred million people, there are over three thousand religious denominations and sixty percent of the American people have religious beliefs, 36% of whom are Protestants; 24% of whom are Roman Catholic Church goers; 3% of whom are Jews and 2% of whom are Orthodox Church goers.China i

21、s a multi-religious country. Taoism, Buddhism, Islamism, Protestantism and Catholicism have all developed quite a following in our country. Freedom of belief is a government policy, and normal religious activities are protected by the constitution.When it comes to the differences of the religion bet

22、ween America and China, there are quite a lot to list. Firstly of all, just as what has been mentioned before, many religions exist in the both US and China. However, when specific comparison is just made between the two countries, people in China who are believers of religions are far less than in

23、US. As is known to all, China is a country with a large population of more than 1,300,000,000 , but the number of people who have a strong belief in religions is just a little more than 100,000,000,and that is only about 7.7%. However , US only has a population of no more than 330,000,000,while the

24、number of believers in US is about 207,900,000,and that is about 63% according to a research in 2012. One is about 63% and the other is only about 7.7%.The difference is obvious.Secondly, in the social life, in United States, religious activities play a important role in civilians daily life, and pe

25、oples belief in the religion is extremely strong. However, in China, though many people have a belief in religion, the belief is always not as strong as people in US.Thirdly, in the aspect of politics, in US, religion is firmly related to the politics. A strong belief in a religion may help a candid

26、ate get much support from voters as they can find the same belief, and the religion has a trend of politicalizing, which will never happen in Chinas political life. In China, the chief party is the Community Party, and it is a party that follows Marxism; so every official in the party should not be

27、a person who has a belief in any religion, and that means they all are atheist. Though the law protects the normal religious activities, it doesnt mean it supports religions development. The law only takes the neutral stand and the politics is totally separated from the religion.Religions in America

28、 and China have great differences, although they have something in common. In America, Christianity is the dominant religion while in China it isnt; in America, majority of people have religious belief while in China, only partly; in America, religions have a great influence on America of many aspects -education, policy and so on, while in China, religions have lighter influence. As for the reason, as far as I am concerned, the most important reason is that the first immigration