Secular World

Re:My favorite Emperor quote(Score:2)
by mercedo (822671) * on 2007.01.04 4:31 (#17448540) (http://www.blogger.com/profile/11854854 Last Journal: 2007.01.03 2:56)
Buddhism entered Japan in 538 and in the beginning the advocate of this religion was rejected severely, but till around 710 Buddhism became the national religion. Buddhism and Shintoism were completely different religion though both faiths kept on being present throughout Japan's history since then. So naturally there was a phenomenon called 'the intermixture of Shintoism and Buddhism' though in most cases two remains to exist differently.
This type of intermixture of religion occurred in Western -European and American countries. Halloween, Christmas are both Nordic origin, and people celebrate these regadless of their origin. It became just hard to distinguish domestic religion and foreign one after the arrival and adoption of Christianity. Here this intermixture deepens even more. Many people celebrate Christmas, New year's Eve, New Year, St Valentine's Day. People are just indifferent to what religious background they have, and these kinds of intermixture can be found all over the world thoughout the history. American value lies in an introduction of secularism and commercialism despite the fact that almost all people attend church every Sunday.
Of course as you pointed out in the case of America, here also there's a fixed family Buddhist sect in each house. But now we rarely know to what sect we belong, and the difference in sect doesn't affect how to hold a funeral ceremony any more. Always a funeral house accepts all religions, which doesn't matter whether it's Christianity or Buddhism, let alnoe what sect in Buddhism.
--Ancient Greek Philosophers -18c Enlightenment Thinkers -Slashdotters