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@gravey0

Lol... are you serious? Just because the Chinese government declares China to be an atheist state, doesn't mean the Chinese peopel are actually atheists. Most Chinese peopel subscribe to Chinses folk religions, Buddhism and Taoism. Only about 8-14% of Chinese are actually atheists.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html#Com

Plus christian missionaries have been comming to China since the 7th century AD. I'd actually say that Christianity hasn't been very successfull in China, considering that after 1300 years Christians only account for about 12% of the population (and that's from independent sources, official sources have christians at about 3-4% of the population). Also the site you linked actually says that most of the growth of Christianity in China can be attributed to influence of powerful Western nations and the Taiping Rebellion (again forced conversion to Christianity).

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@gravey0

Seems like our experience regarding the discrimination mentioned by the thread author differ greatly.

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@gravey0

I've been treated harsly be people all my life, mostly because I'm eccentric ( i guess it's an appropriate term) and because I was percieved as being weak. FTR I myself have never been discriminated against by religious people, mainly because I myself used to be very religious (probsbly more so than most kids/teenagers).

When I refer to the discriminatory attitudes described by the OP that I've noticed in religious people, I'm including members of the clergy, and also people who are the heads of the heads of the Church. Surely you can't be so smug as to think that you have better knowledge of the Bible and Scriptures than those people. And if those people can have such attitudes, and even find justification for them after thorough study of the Bible, is it not that maybe tho goodness you wish were found in religious teachings (goodness that you so need to exist in order to justify your beliefs) is simply not there?

And I know so many people who hate others simply because their religion tells them to (you can't spin it however you want, but the truth is that religion always encourages discrimination), that I can't help but wonder how wonderful it would have been had those people not been indoctrinated by religion in the first place.

Oh, and sorry that you were "accused" of being gay (as if being gay were a crime... wait in my country it was a crime up until 2001 thanks to religious people).

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I suppose we'll have to a gree to disagree. FTR I've met all kinds of hatefull people and I know how to discern those who are hatefull because of their religion and those who are hatefull because they're simply hatefull people.

I also wanted to reply to your comment about gay people in China last night, but I was too tired to do so. Reading the article you linked, one might come to the conclusion that it's not the Gorvernment, but rather Chinese culture and traditions that create problems for gay people. There are no laws in China that target gay people (either in a positive or negative manner). The biggest hurdle that gay people in China have to overcome comes not from the Government, but from their own families. I'd recommend you watch Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet. In that film a Chinese gay man living in th US is forced to live a lie and marry a woman to appease his parents (that live in Hong Kong). Bet you can't blame the Chinese government for that now can you?

Anyway, we've gone way off-topic on this thread, so we'd better stop with our hijacking.

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