The difference between religion and feudal superstition

Whether religion and superstition are the same or different is not only a theoretical issue, but also a practical issue. Correctly distinguishing religion from superstition is of great significance for us to adhere to the Marxist view of religion and comprehensively and correctly implement the policy of freedom of religious belief.

We know everything. "We must pay attention to its similarities with other sports forms." But it is particularly important to pay attention to its particularity, that is, to pay attention to the qualitative difference between it and other things. Only by paying attention to this point can we distinguish things. "Selected Works of Mao Zedong 1 Volume, p. 283]. We should not only know the similarities between religion and superstition, but also know their specialities. Only in this way can we distinguish religion from superstition.

Religion and superstition are based on theism, believing in and worshiping gods or supernatural forces, which is their similarity. The early primitive religion in the history of religious development is polytheism or fetishism, which is amorphous and immature. For example, some religions have no religious doctrines, no religious organizations or even no religious names. What does this primitive religion contain:

First, people have theistic ideas in their minds, which is the condition for the emergence of religion;

Secondly, people hold sacrificial ceremonies for "personified gods and their idols" to pray for the gods of natural things to bless and eliminate disasters;

Third, there are people who preside over sacrifices in society. At first, it was the head of the family, and later there were full-time staff.

In the whole primitive society, it is difficult to distinguish the boundaries between religion and superstition, forming a state in which religion and superstition coexist. After mankind entered the class society, stereotyped, complete and systematic religions appeared, such as Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Taoism. Since then, superstitious activities characterized by witchcraft and exorcism have gradually separated from religion, forming a vulgar superstition of ghosts and gods. In the history of our country, some superstitious ghosts and gods existed as early as slave society, but most of them originated in feudal society. Therefore, this superstition of ghosts and gods is generally called feudal superstition.

There is a clear difference between religion and feudal superstition. Religion is a specific form of ideological belief and world outlook, which is only a reflection of the fantasy of external forces that dominate people's daily lives in people's minds. In this kind of reflection, human power is manifested as superhuman power? Quot[ZW (Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 3, page 354 [ZW]] Religion is still a certain form of cultural phenomenon, and it has left a rich cultural heritage in the fields of sociology such as philosophy, literature, art and ethics, and natural sciences such as medicine, chemistry, astronomy and life sciences.

Historically, religion has become an important part of cultural exchanges among people all over the world. Religion is also a social entity composed of people with the same thoughts and beliefs, that is, a social entity composed of religious ceremonies and religious organizations that are adapted to religious beliefs and feelings. Normal religious beliefs and activities, as long as they are well guided, will be conducive to social stability and national unity. Feudal superstition originated from theism, but it was not religion.

In our country, feudal superstition mainly refers to the activities of those gods, witches and superstitious professionals who use the witchcraft left over from feudal society to play tricks, deceive people, deceive people and harm people, such as inviting immortals to descend to earth, exorcising ghosts to treat diseases, reading bones, reading fortune, watching feng shui and so on. This feudal superstitious activity plays a role in destroying social order, disturbing people's hearts and damaging people's health. In addition, there are not many people who really believe in religion in our country, but many people believe in ghosts and gods and fate. They sometimes burn incense and kowtow, praying to God to bless them. If religion and superstition are regarded as one thing, anyone who believes in ghosts and gods and fate will be regarded as a "religious believer", which is not only absurd in theory, but also harmful in practice.

Our party and state have always had clear policy boundaries in dealing with religious beliefs, feudal superstitious activities and general superstitious activities. We will implement a policy of freedom of religious belief for major religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Christianity, and protect normal religious beliefs and activities. All banned reactionary sects, gods and witches are not allowed to resume their activities. Anyone who deceives and harms others with lies will be severely banned and brought to justice. Article 99 of China's criminal law stipulates: "Whoever organizes and uses feudal superstitions and cults to carry out counter-revolutionary activities shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of more than five years; If the circumstances are minor, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, control or deprivation of political rights. " Article 165 stipulates: "A wizard who uses superstition to spread rumors and defraud property shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years, criminal detention or public surveillance; If the circumstances are serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than two years but not more than seven years. " In addition, for superstitious professionals who make a living by reading fortune-telling, fortune-telling and geomantic omen. Mainly to educate, persuade and help them to stand on their own feet. Don't engage in such activities of deceiving people by superstition. If they don't comply, they should also be banned according to law. For the general superstitious activities of the masses, we can only adopt the method of education and guidance, improve their ideological consciousness and get rid of superstitious thoughts by popularizing scientific and cultural knowledge.

At present, in some places, it deserves attention. One is the revival of the forbidden witchcraft, and superstitious professionals also return to their old jobs, leading to the rise of feudal superstitious activities. A few grassroots cadres are not clear about what normal religious beliefs are and what feudal superstitious activities are, and some even support or participate in feudal superstitious activities. The other is that some people not only have low religious motivation, but also have poor religious awareness. They only know the canon and don't know the doctrine, which has certain blindness. Therefore, confusing religious belief with superstition of ghosts and gods also encourages feudal superstition activities.

Why do people have religious beliefs regardless of race, nationality, region, historical stage and degree of social development? This is a very complicated problem, but there is no doubt that religious belief can be regarded as a universal feature of all mankind. Belief is an instinctive talent of human beings, an overall transcendental consciousness of the fate and history of the universe, the highest form of consciousness that dominates all other forms of consciousness, and a reflection on the integrity of human existence.

"The essence of religion is neither thought nor action, but perception and emotion. It hopes to visualize the universe, listen attentively to the display and activities of the universe itself, and yearn for the childlike passivity to be captured and enriched by the direct influence of the universe. "

Schleiermacher, the founder of religious emotion theory, explained the essence of religion in this way. Indeed, in the primitive society where primitive human intelligence is underdeveloped, human beings are more and more confused about the operation of the sun, moon and stars, the change of temperature day and night, and the existence of their own lives, and they have a great fear of death, and they have an irresistible sense of worship for the huge supernatural and super-social forces behind the natural forces and social forces that dominate human destiny. He "looks up" to this great power with a pious attitude, and has a sense of trust and dependence on it, hoping to solve his fears and puzzles with his infinite ultimate power. Humans constantly describe and express this ultimate infinite power as much as possible. In different stages of the development of human thinking ability and language expression ability, in different regions of living environment, the image and essential expression of this ultimate infinite power are different, and the religious classic system, religious rituals and rules and regulations formed are also different, that is, the external carriers and manifestations of religious feelings are also very different.

In primitive society, because people's brain thinking ability and language expression ability are quite low, human beings associate with insects, snakes, birds and beasts, which materializes this supernatural mysterious force, so there are different totem worship of various ethnic groups for various animals or trees, and a series of cumbersome customs and etiquette have been formed. Witchcraft came into being at this time. Witchcraft shows the communication between human beings and this mysterious infinite power. When a major event happened in primitive society in China, people would ask heaven for instructions through divination and other means, hoping to get the enlightenment from heaven, so that major decisions could be made smoothly. There are many stories of prophets in the Bible. They just accept God's revelation, and then express and teach it to people, so that people's behavior conforms to God's will-that is, they are absolutely sincere to God and "love their neighbors." In this ultimate infinite expression, every nation is influenced by its own cultural development, geographical environment and thinking language ability. So the ultimate infinity of each nation is presented in different ways. In ancient Greece, he was a polytheist headed by Zeus; In Hebrew culture, you must absolutely obey the Lord's instructions; In ancient China, this ultimate infinity was "heaven". Heaven is not an infinite power of personification, but it undoubtedly arouses people's complex emotions such as gratitude, terror and worship with its formidable mysterious power, just like the western gods. From the monarch to the Li people, God can punish those who do things that go against righteousness. China people always try to see the wind turn the rudder and do good deeds.

With the continuous development of human thinking ability, production experience, knowledge system and self-awareness, the religious belief system is also constantly improving. The founders of religion added the moral standards of real society to their teachings and taught believers to act according to the moral standards. With the continuous improvement of people's rational ability, the defenders of religion have proved that God is the ultimate entity in an endless stream, and the arguments around faith and rationality have been repeated and debated endlessly. And some people question the existence of God and constantly argue with the defenders of religion about God. Even within the same religion, the dispute between orthodoxy and heresy is more intense around the different ways to prove God. Since faith comes from human's fear of supernatural power and confusion about the power to control one's own destiny, and since faith comes from feelings and emotions, why should we use human's imperfect reason to prove the existence of this ultimate entity? Belief and rationality are two concepts at different levels. Why should they be considered together? Humans always use today's achievements to deny and laugh at yesterday's ignorance, and their understanding of God is constantly developing, full of people's prejudice and innocence. Poor god!

God is in my heart and I don't need outsiders to prove his existence.

Why can't everything be restored? Why not experience the existence of God from the most primitive feelings, experiences and emotions? The Bible (Old Testament) is a long-term struggle between the Hebrew people and the neighboring peoples. The prophet recorded some private religious feelings, unified his loyalty to the Lord and the Hebrew nation, and made the Hebrew nation unite in all previous difficulties and tide over the difficulties together. The Bible is the spiritual food of the whole western nation. God is in everyone's heart, and only by truly feeling the existence of God can we have a strong belief in Christianity. The Bible and missionaries are just catalysts for God's belief in people's hearts, and their purpose is only to stimulate religious feelings in people's hearts.

"For me, God is more real than any thought, thing or person. I did feel his presence. I feel him in the bright sunshine, in the drizzle, when he is praying and praising, I talk to him like a friend, and our words are extremely pleasant. He answered me again and again, and his words were often clear and easy to understand, making my ears seem to carry his voice; On the whole, his words will leave a deep impression on my heart. "

"God surrounds me like the air in nature. He is closer to me than my breath. In fact, I live, move and exist in God.

Sometimes, I seem to stand in front of him and talk to him. Prayer must be answered, and sometimes these responses reveal his existence and strength in a direct and overwhelming way.

I feel a kind of existence, powerful and comfortable, hovering over my head. Sometimes, it seems to hug me with strong arms. "

For these personal emotional experiences, some people will ask, how real will it be? Even if it is true, some people use the results of modern psychology to analyze, saying that these are just human psychological reflections. In fact, it is difficult for a person without religious beliefs to understand the personal feelings of people with true beliefs. Opponents of religious emotion argue that it is not universal to define the essence of religion as the personal experience of believers, and religious emotion is just a mysterious feeling that is difficult to grasp.

However, the starting point of this view is the theoretical derivation of the concept. Religious belief is firstly a private psychological experience, and secondly it is interpreted and summarized by the sages as a series of theoretical systems, religious ceremonies and religious festivals in a specific national historical environment. In the process of reading religious classics and rituals, personal mysterious religious feelings are aroused, people begin to communicate with God, and people's religious beliefs are more firm and firm. In other words, private religious feelings are objectified and generalized into religious classic theories and religious rituals. Religious feelings are objectified, which transcends the narrow privacy and has publicity. In this process, human ethics, culture, art, and political ideas are injected into the faith of the subject of faith with the help of this carrier. Therefore, the criticism of religious emotionalism can dispel its criticism to some extent. The reason why human religious feelings can be aroused in specific situations and arouse people's voices lies in the innate belief instinct of human beings, which is universal and potentially exists in everyone. When a certain life experience or life background changes, people reflect on their own destiny, society and universe, and feel the call of an ultimate entity in an instant. Although everyone's specific life experience is different, their thinking about fate and life is the same. Everyone will face the arrival of death, and will involuntarily feel and speculate about the world beyond reality, and feel the control of ultimate existence on personal destiny and social and historical process. A series of complex individual feelings and emotions about this ultimate entity, after objectification, try to stimulate the religious feelings of other believers.

Religious belief, from a private individual experience and psychological feeling, has materialized into a specific nation, with a series of theoretical classics, religious ceremonies and rules and regulations, which are of great significance to believers and the whole society and nation. For an individual, when he is confused when he can't grasp his own destiny, when he has uncertain fears about death and the future, if he converts to God, he will believe that God is with him, feel the love and strength from God, and will not fall into helpless despair and lose the courage to survive. For society, religious belief is a powerful spiritual weapon to unite social members, enhance social centripetal force and unity, and enable people to establish moral concepts conducive to social stability. No nation can stand on the earth for a long time without religious belief, but each nation has a different definition of God.

Be tolerant of religious beliefs, and you can't deny others' religious beliefs with your own religious beliefs, nor can you deny others' religious beliefs with your own unbelief. With the continuous development of mankind, religious belief will play a great role in social integration.

Article 36 of the Constitution of China stipulates that "the people of China and the citizens of China have freedom of religious belief". Article 25 1 of China's criminal law stipulates: "State functionaries illegally deprive citizens of their freedom of religious belief ... if the circumstances are serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years or criminal detention." It is the consistent policy of our party and government to respect citizens' religious belief rights and protect normal religious activities. China's consistent policy is to resolutely ban feudal superstitious activities according to law. Crack down on all feudal superstitions that endanger national interests and people's lives and property. Article 300 of China's Criminal Law stipulates: "Whoever organizes or makes use of public associations or uses superstition to undermine the implementation of national laws and administrative regulations shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years; If the circumstances are particularly serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of more than seven years. " Feudal superstitious activities are not protected by state laws.