Definition of Religion

Intrinsic to the earliest cultures were clan life and group-centered life. Later on, however, the Chinese developed a stronger inclination for family life while Westerners hewed to group-centered life. They each took their own path. In the West the road was paved by Christianity, but in China the way forward was opened up by the moral code of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius. Therefore, the difference between Chinese culture and Western culture lies in religion, as suggested in the discussion above. To explain this further, we must now turn to the moral codes of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius and their influence upon Chinese culture, and the influence of Christianity upon Western culture. To this end, we must talk about religion in general.

Human culture begins with religion and whenever a culture emerges, religion is central to it. Both social order and the politics of a group or a mass of people stem from religion, as do ideology and all kinds of learning. Even today, there are still cultures in which religion is at the heart of everything – Tibetan culture is one such example. Not only is this the case when a culture is not yet mature, it is also the case even after a culture has matured, as it very often takes the shelter of a great religion in order for it to be well nurtured and developed, as we see with the European and American cultures of modern times, for example. As history shows, no great nation can be established without a higher culture, and the unity of such a nation relies in every way on an established religion. The downplaying of religion is only a recent phenomenon.

For the most part, human culture consists of nothing more than the tools and measures, the methods and skills, and the organization systems, but though they make up the lion's share, all these aspects occupy only a subordinate position. The aspect that plays the central role involves people's attitudes to life and their value judgements within that culture. In other words, what matters most in a culture consists in its people's life choices, their likes and dislikes, what they consider right or wrong, and their approach to life.