Why are people in China who have no religious beliefs so superstitious?

Superstition and belief are two different things.

Text /Sodagi Kampo

Believing in any religion, whether it is Christianity, Taoism, Confucianism or Buddhism, can easily become superstition if you don't understand its truth and just become superficial. For example, some people go to temples to burn incense and worship Buddha for promotion and wealth. Although this is also a belief, if you don't know what the role of Buddha is, what is the difference between Buddha and God, and just regard Buddha as a tool for seeking wealth, it will become superstition.

Nowadays, in many temples, people worship Buddha every day. Although I dare not say that all people are like this, some people are superstitious. Why? Because they don't even know why they worship Buddha. The true belief in Buddhism is to know that Sakyamuni Buddha has been to this world through his own wisdom, read some great articles or books of his predecessors, and know that everything he said is reasonable, which has an indelible effect on relieving his pain and solving life problems, and then treat him honestly from the bottom of his heart. This is the true faith. On the other hand, if you believe in Buddhism on the surface, you are actually confused and unreasonable. Even if you are a Buddhist, you are still superstitious.

Therefore, burning incense and worshipping Buddha is not necessarily a true Buddhist belief. If you don't know its merits, it's just an external worship. Some people will do the same for fishing. When I went to the south before, I saw many ordinary people burning incense in the temple before going fishing in the sea, and asked the Buddha to bless me and catch more fish. This is totally superstition. Liang Qichao once talked about the difference between superstition and true belief in a book, saying that Buddhist belief is wisdom rather than superstition. But if you don't understand Buddhism, it is probably not wisdom, but superstition.