"Spreading" critical thinking

[SK ting]

I am sure you guys know about the spread of Christianity in China.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... years.html

I wonder whether there should be people setting up organisations going to these third world countries to educate (I typed "spread atheism" at first but found it didn't make sense.) about critical thinking, logical reasoning, scientific methods and other useful practicals (e.g. how to make water purifying systems).

I think it is very easy for people to believe in gods but it takes a lot of effort to inculcate critical thinking.

[preet]

It is a pity that people would abandon religions like Confucianism and Buddhism for Christianity. Makes me wonder, what special attributes does Christianity possess which make it so attractive to the masses.

[Jebus]

[quote="preet"what special attributes does Christianity possess which make it so attractive to the masses.[/quote]

I can think of lots of things. In Christianity you can fuck up as much as you want and still be forgiven. You don't have to starve yourself or deprive yourself of anything Moreover, pretty much anything, even homosexuality, is accepted as long as you search long enough to find the 1 denomination of 30000 that works exactly for you.

[brimstoneSalad]

Makes me wonder, what special attributes does Christianity possess which make it so attractive to the masses.

Mainly because they see rich Western people as Christian. Christianity must be right if Christians are rich, right?

Unfortunately, it's a compelling argument for many.

That's not to say that after nominally accepting the salvation of Jesus, wearing a cross, and taking off on Christian holidays that they aren't still essentially following the same syncretic paganism they always had.

They mostly just hedge their bets and become "Christian" because 1. It's easy and they don't have to really do anything 2. They feel like it may give them some socioeconomic advantage.

There are very few real Buddhists in Asia, particularly China unfortunately, mostly just people taking the superstition without the philosophy, praying to Buddha which makes no sense at all, and making all kinds of excuses for eating meat except for when they want something (eat one vegetarian meal to gain some Karma currency to spend on a sick Mother).

They don't seem to grasp the notion that being vegan isn't positive karma, it's neutral. Every other day, if you take karma seriously, they're just digging themselves deeper.

[Soycrates]

Makes me wonder, what special attributes does Christianity possess which make it so attractive to the masses.

Upper-middle class Christians make promises to non-Christians all the time that if you just pray to the right God, prosperity will rain down upon you. They fail to mention that this rain of prosperity isn't so much your average divine precipitation of good fortune as it is the blood spilled from dozens of genocides against non-white anglo saxon protestants (WASPs), taking their land and valuable resources. "The reason we're privileged is because God loves us!" No honey, it's because you're a white American.