The various kinds of different views in Western religions, for example: dualism, animism were compared to those of Eastern religions: Daoism, Buddhism I find this quite fascinating. From the point of a person coming from an East Asian country, I tend to think that Western Religions contains many more myths and tales. Most Western religions believe in a supreme God and that He is the maker of the Universe. The purpose of practicing Western religions is to create a relationship with God and to have a peaceful, blessed life.
It seems to me that in the Western world, religions affect citizens more heavily.
For example, in America, the slogan ‘In God we trust’ is used many times in governmental meetings or even their money. On the other hand, Buddhism regards more the importance of nature (as implied in ‘Laws of Nature’, its followers’ practice in order to seek peace. They try to learn to live in harmony with nature. It is quite true that people assume Easterners to be more religious, however, I think this is the other way around.
Asian people may believe in a God but do not necessarily practice the religion. In our culture, there is a distinction between traditions and religion. One of our biggest traditions is to pay tribute to our ancestors, hence the rituals and food offerings. This is why we are mistaken for being more religious. But I find a common point of having any religion: it is to seek salvation and have something to rely on when hardships come.
In the chapter of The Scientific Revolution, it is stated ‘even science itself has to rely on religious and ideological beliefs to justify and finance its research’. In addition, the main modern research method takes for granted the insufficiency of old knowledge. This idea reminded me of a piece of work by a famous philosopher named Peter Winch.
He had the same idea of how science works. It is all about taking for granted past assumptions and use it as a base, then move on. On the other hand, Winch claimed that philosophy, religions and beliefs must always re-evaluate over and over again. Because of that, science does rely on religions and beliefs to evaluate itself further, to have a good foundation for further discoveries. The similarity that I found, to me, has become a validation of how science studies function.
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