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 A religious statue in a tsunami-devastated area in Natori city, along the coast.
March 14th, 2011
04:43 PM ET
How Japan's religions confront tragedyBy Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor Proud of their secular society, most Japanese aren't religious in the way Americans are: They tend not to identify with a single tradition nor study religious texts. "The average Japanese person doesn’t consciously turn to Buddhism until there’s a funeral,” says Brian Bocking, an expert in Japanese religions at Ireland’s University College Cork. When there is a funeral, though, Japanese religious engagement tends to be pretty intense. “A very large number of Japanese people believe that what they do for their ancestors after death matters, which might not be what we expect from a secular society,” says Bocking. “There’s widespread belief in the presence of ancestors’ spirits.” In the days and weeks ahead, huge numbers of Japanese will be turning to their country’s religious traditions as they mourn the thousands of dead and try to muster the strength and resources to rebuild amid the massive destruction wrought by last Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami. For most Japanese, religion is more complex than adhering to the country’s ancient Buddhist tradition. They blend Buddhist beliefs and customs with the country’s ancient Shinto tradition, which was formalized around the 15th century. “Japanese are not religious in the way that people in North America are religious,” says John Nelson, chair of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco. “They’ll move back and forth between two or more religious traditions, seeing them as tools that are appropriate for certain situations.” “For things connected to life-affirming events, they’ll turn to Shinto-style rituals or understandings,” Nelson says. “But in connection to tragedy or suffering, it’s Buddhism.” There are many schools of Japanese Buddhism, each with its own teachings about suffering and what happens after death. “There are many Buddhist explanations of why calamities happen: from collective karma to seeing calamities as signs of apocalypse,” says Jimmy Yu, an assistant professor of Buddhism and Chinese religions at Florida State University. “And perhaps all of them are irrelevant to what needs to be done.” Indeed, where Christianity, Judaism or Islam are often preoccupied with causes of disaster - the questions of why God would allow an earthquake, for example - Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Shinto focus on behavior in reaction to tragedy. “It’s very important in Japanese life to react in a positive way, to be persistent and to clean up in the face of adversity, and their religions would emphasize that,” says University College Cork’s Bocking. “They’ll say we have to develop a powerful, even joyful attitude in the face of adversity.” Japan’s major religious groups are still developing responses to the disaster, but experts say the impulse toward maintaining a positive outlook will likely translate into calls for Japanese to help friends and neighbors clean up and rebuild. At the same time, Japan’s Buddhist priests will be preoccupied with rituals surrounding death and burial. Japanese Buddhism is often called funeral Buddhism because of its concern with such rituals. Despite the Japanese penchant for blending their religious traditions - even with Western traditions like Catholicism - the overwhelming majority are buried according to Buddhist custom: cremation and interment in a family plot. With many bodies swept away in the tsunami, many Japanese will have to come to terms with having to forego that ritual. After burial, Japanese typically continue to practice rituals around caring for the spirits of the deceased. Most Japanese keep Buddhist altars in their homes, Nelson says, using them to pay tribute to dead ancestors. “In the days ahead, you’ll see people praying, with hands folded, for the spirits of those killed,” he says. “It goes back to a really early understanding of human spirits and rituals designed to control those spirits, which can take 49 days or, depending on the type of Buddhism, could go on for up to seven years.” One popular school of Japanese Buddhism, called Amida - or Pure Land - believes in a paradise that spirits of the dead can enter with help from living relatives. Despite what is likely to be a mass embrace of Buddhist rituals after the earthquake, there may also be some grievances expressed over those traditions. Many young Japanese have left Buddhism, accusing priests of profiting from grief because of their paid roles in burials. Critics say the priests spend money from funerals on temples without playing a broader role in society. “The earthquake is an opportunity for Buddhist priests to step up and show they are still relevant,” says Nelson. “Young people just aren’t buying it anymore.”
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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It"'s sad their are so many brain washed people in this world'
It's even sadder that you have failed to master the difference between "their", "there", and "they're".
And in the begining man created god in his own image!
Couldn't have said it better myself!!! 🙂
why are we on earth ? why do we exist ?
Because GOD has a plan for each and every one. He is showing grace upon everyone and waiting that he/she will accept him and become His child.
"Be holy, because I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16"
We are on the Earth because our species evolved here. We exist because that's how things turned out.
No mystery, no supernatural stuff needed.
READ THIS ROMANS 9:20. ASK YOUR DADDY WHY HE CREATED YOU..
Why didn't the gods prevent this tragedy from happening in the first place? And now people pray to the same gods...
It is impossible for an non-existant being to cause or prevent anything in the real world, except perhaps when the delusional people who believe in the non-existant being take some action based on their cult's delusional beliefs, but that is not the same as the non-existant being actually doing something directly, but the delusional cult members would probably argue that their non-existant being is real and acting through his delusional followers...
Hi Peter God kill people who are not afraid of him so that people that are left will realize that theres really a God but why they are pray to God? they pray to god not to God there are so many gods, to prove that there is God read Deuteronomy 32:39. God declares to himself that there is no other before him He that kill and make alive, He that wound and heal ang neither is there any that devliver out of his hand. Now prove it to me that there is another god that declare such words.. All i can say TO GOD BE THE GLORY, THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.
GOD is soo real.all things were created by him and only for him.he says when the world stop worshiping him,the rocks will.that is exactly wat we see..if anyone don't want to believe.then try reading what has been recorded in the bible for over 2000 years.these things must happen before the coming of our lord.**Mathew 24:6-8 :"you are going to hear of wars and rumars of wars.See that you are not alarmed because these things must take place,but the end is not yet.For nations will rise against nation,and kingdom against kingdom.There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. all these events are the begining of BIRTH PAINS."
The Bible, a book written over 2,000 years ago, is filled with applications to the modern world. Only fools discredit the Bible, which IS the Holy Word of God.
Being a good human being won't do it
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that none may boast.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And finally,
Romans 14:11
It is written: 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess that He [God] is Lord.'
Pretty profound language in that last verse... notice EVERY knee shall bow, EVERY tongue will confess that He is Lord. For non-believers, mock all you want in this life, but when Christ returns, you WILL bow and you WILL confess at the nothing more than the sheer awe from His presence, much less His almighty power!
The simple truth is, for every scientific argument thought up, the Bible refutes it.
You've made some extraordinary claims – I look forward to your supporting argument and sincerely hope it is better than "my book of tribal myths says they are true so they must be"...
God Bless you Matt, very well put, I agree with everything you said and you couldn't have explained it any better. God is the very breath that we breath. Thank You.
@HotAir
There is no arguing with truth
Atheism is too simple. Calvin said it well :
The most audacious despiser of God is most easily disturbed, trembling at the sound of a falling leaf. ...
The Book of Romans Chapter 1:
19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, (AN)being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
what you quote is not at all different from what the quran says.
so why not convert to a more modern version of faith
I know I might sound just a bit sarcastic, but i don't mean to hurt.
“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he/she dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."(Jn 11:21-27). To die is a human nature and to have another new life after this earthly life is to believe in Christ Jesus. Nobody came back to life this World after he/she dies but only JESUS CHRIST who came back to life again after the three days HE died which to proof us that we have endless joys and Heaven. While we're living on this world we may face the death in many ways but how do you learn to believe or accept your meaningful life from such situation in CHRIST JESUS. He founded Roman Catholic Church.
In the beginning God created all things good and beautiful until sin enter into the heart of Satan. Satan came to the world and deceived many and make this earth his domain. Satan made many people to follow him. He make all these miseries and destruct ions and blamed God for it...But time will come God will bring Satan to justice to pay all his debts and someday be vanished from the face of this earth!
All who are pure and do not yield to Satan's descriptions and believed in Jesus Christ will inherit the new earth. Amen
I would challenge trushseeker to produce a scientific paper (from a reputable, peer-reviewed journal) proving that something has ever been created from absolutely nothing by man. Many Biologists on the university level would be honest in saying that scientists have tried to create life out of what was believed to be the primordial elements and failed. The truth is that this will always be the case because only God can breath the breath of life into anything. People criticize the idea of one creator and His spoken truth in the Bible. This is not because there is no evidence on earth throughout all creation to prove this fact, but because if this is true, it will require something of them that they fear the most. You would have to stop worshiping and living to please yourself, and surrender your life over to a higher authority.
@Jefro
Why do you narrow the choices for the creation of the universe to "man vs. god"? Why can't the answer be science that we do not yet understand? Stephen Hawking just wrote a book in which he concludes that no god was required for the creation of the universe – have you published a successful rebutal? Have you published a successful proof for the existence if god, or are you hoping to get away with just saying "The truth is that this will always be the case because only God can breath the breath of life into anything."? Your argument that man has not (yet) created life in a laboratory does not support your argument for a god. And of course, you saying that your book of mythological bullsh!t is absolutely true, does not make it so. But please do educate us.
@Jefro
Hey -Jefro...
You Said: "Many Biologists on the university level would be honest in saying that scientists have tried to create life out of what was believed to be the primordial elements and failed. (The 'truth' is that this will always be the case)."
I think that you and I both know that being really intellectually honest here.... Just because it hasn't happened...'yet' certainly is not = to that it will 'never' happen. There have been and continually are tremendous leaps and bounds in science happening every day.
So, the 'truth' is... we don't actually know...yet. Maybe they will, maybe they won't.
But, to flat out say with conviction and certainty that it will 'never' happen, and that is the 'truth' is a closed mind showing itself.
Just some thoughts... you may want to consider that it 'may'... and probably will, at some point 'happen.' It may be tomorrow... it may be centuries, but that is being open-minded and truly honest, yes...?
Respectfully,
Peace...
"Indeed, where Christianity, Judaism or Islam are often preoccupied with causes of disaster – the questions of why God would allow an earthquake, for example – Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Shinto focus on behavior in reaction to tragedy."
I understand there might be a prevailing thought that most Christians are preoccupied with those thoughts. But the Christians at first-responder organizations like World Vision, Mercy Corps, World Concern and many others — including many everyday Christ-followers around the world — are primarily concerned with openly serving anyone in need, on the spot, no matter the cause of the disaster, without judgment or debate and completely out of compassion for people. The people at those organizations do it because they have they personally come to trust Jesus and his transforming love and grace in their life and seek to live out his call to sensitively and lovingly serve others.
> "They blend Buddhist beliefs and customs with the country’s Shinto tradition, which dates back to the 15th century."
What? Shinto is much older than the 15th century!
I find it interesting that self proclaimed Christians who quote the Bible always turn to the Old Testament. How about that other part? You know – the one with Jesus? I suggest the Sermon on the Mount. Especially Matthew 7:1-6. Oh and also that part in Luke 10:25-37. Especially the part about the Good Samaritan. Seems particularly appropriate here.
Jesus died for all our sins, turn to him!!
Ahh, CNN is at it again! Comments against Christianity or god in general are OK, comments against islam are not OK and get deleted. Proves once again what a bunch of hypocrites with double standards CNN are.
Where do you go after you die? Haven or Hell........
Salvation is 100% totally FREE, Jesus is the only way to Heaven......JESUS LOVE YOU
It ain't that simple. You are the product of what you did and no one will take your suffering away from you. It;s what you called "What comes around goes around" Every living in america knows. this.
^agreed
You need to read up on the history of the Christian religion , it was CREATED by MAN to CONTROL the masses. It was taken up by man because it was the first religion to offer an afterlife ... Christian Religion was created by a PAGAN. MAN created religion because they are so scared of death that they needed something to believe in. Wake Up !
help, help ... now you scare me
allah, god, shiva, jesus, muhammed, buddha, ra, zeus , jupiter and the rest of the collection ...
help me, save me
I don't wanna go to HELL!!! I've got so much bad karma.. sins ...
...
Do I?
Or is it others telling me that I have sinned, bad karma ... ?
wacky wacky
Jesus also loves proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Trust me, I know HIM.
Jesus is the way!!! I believe this with all my heart! God does not make bad things happen, evil does!! If everyone one had faith and turned to god bad things wouldn't happen!! And BTW in my eyes there is only one religion! If you don't believe in Jesus than it dosent matter what you believe, everything else is evil
Pray that one day Jesus will give you a brain.
What the Ja-panese recognized many moons ago:
Mother Nature is not able to alter life and requests/prayers will not be answered. Statistically, your request might come true but it is simply the result of the variabiliy/randomness of Nature.
So put down your rosaries and prayer beads and stop worshiping cows and bowing to Mecca five times a day. Instead work hard at your job, take care of aging parents, volunteer at a soup kitchen, donate to charities and the poor and continue to follow any good rules of living as gracious and good human beings. And lets all hope there indeed is a place called Heaven!!!
How about instead of trying to get others to belive in your beliefs, give something to charity instead of preaching and help the unfortunate. Regardless of what you belive.
Chris what you explain is rgiht. Your compassionate deeds to your fellowmen is a legacy we leave in this world. That is all it counts. We also needs to relief of our suffering. And that is understanding the truth on why in each and everyone suffer. Our suffering is not due to the creation of God ourselves. No one else will carry the burden of suffering except you. GOD
i don't understand why some people still claim there is no God...if they look at the nature and think about it...they will see who is the behind of the creation of the nature..if i claim that a car is already exist without someone who designed and created it, people will call me crazy, but how about someone claim that our nature already exists without the Creator??
ali – Two concepts I believe you might wish to "Google" or "Wiki": first, "infinite regress" and second, "apophenia".
Ali, read about self organizing systems and you will see that no god is required to build a molecule, which evolves into nucleic acids, then DNA and eventually cells. You can see evolution every day, just look at humans who grow taller every generation. Nature evolves and adapts. God is not required for this. There is no god. There's only you.
Tq, truthseeker, but at the first place, who are creating and growing the molecule to cell??nature??who created this nature??
@ali – Your last comment reflects that "infinite regress" thing I mentioned...
our nature is created to mankind,so mankind can live in this temporary world...but every people will die and will shift to another world that permanent and everlasting..
Yes, but just because you know someone created the car, that doesn't mean that you automatically know what that person looks like or what he thinks you should or shouldn't do... that's a big jump. It is possible that there are some things we don't know... and making up stories to explain them does not make the stories true... whether or not they offer explanations.
Truthseeker: self organizing systems and molecules evolving into nucleic acids, then DNA and eventually cells etc.... DOES need a god to happen. Remember entropy and enthrapy?
Even evolution needs a God to happen. Evolution defies enthrapy.
Science..... does not explain away God. It only shows us God's way of doing things (for us to understand).
priceless...
@Anthony – You may wish to refresh your understanding of entropy and the difference between closed and open systems. Evolution happens. You can claim it requires "God" but there's currently no evidence indicating this to be true.
The question is not "WHO" created that nature, but rather "WHAT". To conceive the GOD as a person, capable of emotions, human-like thought and morals is to limit GOD into a anthropocentric archetype.
For me..every single things happens even what ever term we are used, there is the Creator.like Nature they must be a God who created it..Who organized the nature becoming so stable... infinite regress what i understand...is about supporting one and another..so, that thing happen with the permission of GOD..if GOD not permit it it doesn't occur...i'm sure that some people will not believe the metaphysics..because it against the law of the science..but it happen..
@ali – I'll make it simple. You claim nature requires a creator (i.e. "God"). This begs the question of who created the creator? Then who created the creator's creator? Ad infinitum. Before, you respond, I know you'll argue that "God" always existed, to which I'll suggest that this could also be the same explanation for "nature". In the end, we can at least agree that nature does exist...
@Anthony
How about you get your invisible supernatural being to agree to a debate with Richard Dawkins or Stephen Hawkin? My money is on Richards D and Steven H. Well actually, my money is on "there are no gods" and that you can't deliver – on arranging a debate or providing evidence for your god. Again, there are no gods – just unexplained science.
@Q..of course there is no evidence indicating that, that why the revelation came to explain and we have to use our mind to indicate it with the science..
@Q..God..who create GOD??We can't say HE is a GOD, if the God also one of the creation of another Creator..
So we can't about GOD...we know only via His messenger..
GOD is soo real.all things were created by him and only for him.he says when the world stop worshiping him,the rocks will.that is exactly wat we see..if anyone don't want to believe.then try reading what has been recorded in the bible for over 2000 years.these things must happen before the coming of our lord.**Mathew 24:6-8 :"you are going to hear of wars and rumars of wars.See that you are not alarmed because these things must take place,but the end is not yet.For nations will rise against nation,and kingdom against kingdom.There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. all these events are the begining of BIRTH PAINS." talks about these things everywhere in the bible. praise god!
*we can't think
@ali – Science cannot speak to the presence or absence of a deity. Science begins, proceeds and concludes based on physical evidence, not magic. Invoking God as a mechanism at any step renders the activity a philosophical endeavor, not a scientific one. "God" can explain any and all observations. Something that explains anything and everything and cannot be falsified, effectively explains nothing.
@ali – "@Q..God..who create GOD??We can't say HE is a GOD, if the God also one of the creation of another Creator.." Many faith systems tell stories of gods created by other gods. This is the problem with magic. There simply are no wrong answers because anything is possible. Your stating otherwise offers no logical or empirical evidence to the contrary.
God is not necessary to create us. When you go down to subatomic particles and beyond you see strings of energy and then to electromagnetic field plus other weak forces. You yourseld is empty of inherent existence. We struggle everyday to find out why matters exist. In reality, it called dependent origination. It is the product of your mind. The scientist are convince that are are make of wave and back to particle and back to wave. It's called paritcle-wave duality. We don't exist yet we exist – In Buddhism it is called "Sunyata".
This back-and-forth argument is absolutely why I'm an athiest.
Science also explained how the earth was flat. Of course, that debate is over now, just as this debate will soon be.
Except in the case of car, you exactly know who made it, where as in the case of God you have to make an assumption.
Your comparison is awfully amature and wrong. Religion tells you to have a blind faith, no questions asked, on the other hand science is a factual process of quantifying , analyzing and accepting the experimental result out of it. You believe in a book of religion written by humans about a human who had a dream and told his wife about it next day. In all fairness of my mental state, these things are very hard to accept except if you are delusioned.
You are kidding right ? You religious people are so blind in your faith that you ignore facts ! People who believe in God are on the low end of Human Evolution... Your brain clearly has a problem telling fact from fiction.
Any who believed the earth was flat could have read Isaiah 40:22 to find the answer. If you really want to know if there is a God, just read the Bible without preconceived ideas and you will get your answer.
The vast majority of religions distort what the Bible teaches in order to support their own view. A religion was not needed to find out if the earth was flat, just the Bible. Many of the questions we debate about are found in the Bible, not religion.
@33scottie33
I don't have a bible handy 'cause I toss them in the garbage bin with all other pieces of bad fiction, but...
How about you show us where the bible says the earth is a sphere without stretching the defintion of round? And while you're on that, how about you explain the small problem with pi as described by your book of manmade tribal myths? Please note, we've seen the twisted argument about inside vs outside measurements...
@33scottie33
Hi -scottie...
I'm sincerely curious in that... at least how I read your posting, it seems that 'your' personal take on the Bible and having most if not all the answers, appears that 'your' views have no distortions and your view...is 'the' correct one...?
Am I reading your posting correct here...?
If so, I am very interested in hearing how you seem to have the 'right truth,' while apparently you view others as 'distorting' the Bible.
Thank you..
Respectfully,
Peace...
True ! You are Right !
I'm also particularly fond of the "Biblical genetics" described in Genesis 30:37-39.
My Goddess gave birth to your god 🙂
A car is created who need people to create it..it very simple..Nature is created, need an assumption to think that..okay..the assumption is need to be guided by revelation.. Scientist only can say what happens via their 5 senses..they only know via 5 Senses after experiment is done ..but revelation tell us the thing out of our 5 senses..However its make sense if we agree all things are created? So, all thing occurred(including nature) by itself, is out of our common senses..
Q: One of the definitions of God is that He is the un-created.
And regarding evidence... well, what exactly are you looking for? What type of evidence? A burning bush? A white cloud with a beard appearing in your living room? 😛
I AGREE WITH ALI BUT I DON'T KNOW WHICH GOD HE GIVE THANKS. AND TO THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD THIS IS FOR YOU...PSALMS 14:1, PSALMS 53:1 TO YOUR AFTER LIFE THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.. 21:8. AND THIS IS THE DECLARATION OF GOD IN THE BIBLE DEUTERONIMY 32:39. DIS AGREE WITH IT AND YOU WILL BE ABOMINATION TO GOD.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY, THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.