If China do not believe in God why is it progressive?

Answer 1

It is a fallacy to think that the Chinese do not believe in God. Whilst the Christian Church in China slumped to around just 5000 members across the country during the 'Cultural Revolution' of the 1960s (in hiding for fear of persecution), since then Christianity has musroomed right across China. There is now an official State Christian Church as well as other denominations allowed, and, rather than persecute the Church (as the government did during the Cultural Revolution) only certain aspects of the Christian church there are now persecuted, usually those groups who do not belong to one of the 'approved' denominations. In addition to the official churches, there are also many private Christians - Christians who study, worship and pray at home, in private, but in public life show little sign of their Christian beliefs. This practice, though widespread, is almost unique to China, and reflects the problems that Christians had there, and the ramifications of 'going public' with their faith, during the time of immense and brutal persecution. It was estimated that at the turn of the 21st century the 5000 Christians of the 1960s had grown to a Chinese Christian church numbering over 50 million members. Since then the growth of the numbers of Christians in China has been growing almost exponentially (just as it did in South Korea a few years ago) and, once you add to this number the large number of private Christians (which is difficult to estimate simply because of the privacy involved), then it is anyone's guess just how many Christians there now are in the country. Some have estimated 100 million, some even more. This represents around 7.5% of the population and is growing. This figure is comparable with many other Western so-called 'Christian' countries where church attendance represents no more than a few per cent of the population, yet the countries are still called 'Christian'. If growth of the Church in China continues at this rate, in less than twenty years' time the majority of the population will be practising Christians. Whereas Christianity is growing within China at an amazing rate, this does not deter from the fact that the Chinese government are still regarded as corrupt by the West and have many issues regarding human rights, torture, executions, false imprisonment and many other issues. However, one should never equate the Chinese people with their government (just look at Iraq at the time of Saddam Hussein), as, while the government may not be progressive, the people - at least a great many of them, certainly are.