China and biblical creationism

According to Slate, "Protestant Christianity has been the fastest growing religion in China."[1] Evangelical Christianity is especially growing sharply in China.[2]

Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists and agnostics.[3]

China has the world's largest atheist population.[4]

The current atheist population mostly resides in East Asia (particularly China) and in secular Europe/Australia among whites.[5] See: Western atheism and race

According to Slate, "Protestant Christianity has been the fastest growing religion in China."[6] Evangelical Christianity is especially growing sharply in China.[7] Most evangelical Christians are creationists. See also: Asian atheism

On November 1, 2014, an article in The Economist entitled Cracks in the atheist edifice declared:

“  |  Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the Communist Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s atheism...

Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.[8]

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Justin Wood wrote:

“  |  Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by ...veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history...

I suspect that even the most enthusiastic accounts err on the downside, and that Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now. China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.[9]

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## Contents

* 1 Impact of Christianization of China on Darwinism and morality
* 1.1 Evolutionary belief and sexual immorality
* 2 Chinese Christianity and anti-evolution free speech
* 3 See also
* 4 Notes

## Impact of Christianization of China on Darwinism and morality[edit]

David Aikman served as Time Magazine's bureau chief in Beijing China. He wrote a book in 2003 entitled Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power.

In his book Aikman wrote:“China is in the process of becoming Christianised … [i.e.] it is possible that Christians will constitute 20 to 30 percent of China’s population within three decades” (p. 285).

When Aikman provided this estimate in 2003, he did not have the benefit of seeing Chinese Christianity grow rapidly in urban areas among the influential upper eschelons of Chinese society which is presently happening (see: Growth of Christianity in China).

A review of his book declares and please note the bold font added for emphasis which indicates the Chinese Christians are generally not Darwinists:

“  |  Who are these Chinese Christians? It would be absurd to say they are an organized body with uniform beliefs and opinions on everything, yet Aikman’s book leads to certain generalisations. They regard themselves as truly patriotic, tending to support their government politically, with the exception, perhaps, of being very pro-American and pro-Israel. Both preferences stem from their religious, rather than their political beliefs. Their theology particularly with the “house church” Protestant Christians, is Biblical and fundamentalist, and the churches with which they are linked in the United States are their equivalents. To some extent the reason for this is that fundamentalists see evangelism as an urgent matter – to save souls from hell – in a way that their “liberal” co-religionists, with their less exclusive attitude to the matter of salvation, do not. Such help, spiritual and material, as does come from foreign Christians, will tend to come from such evangelicals, who are mostly Americans. Part of the fundamentalist package, millenarianism – the belief in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to reign for a thousand years, regarded as probably an imminent event – includes a necessary, though uncertain role for the Jews. Other features widespread amongst Chinese Christians are the “speaking in tongues” and claims of miraculous healing and exorcism. Aikman does not mention it but it seems fair to add that such Christians will reject Darwinism. If, as seems likely, they adhere to the Christian morality brought to China by the missionaries, they will also preach chastity before marriage and fidelity within it, and abhor homosexuality and abortion. All these are positions that have long been compromised or abandoned in Western Christendom, but in China would be welcomed by any government as desirable virtues, apart from, presumably, the last.[10] |  ”

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### Evolutionary belief and sexual immorality[edit]

See also: Evolutionary belief and sexual immorality

Charles Darwin

In July of 2000, Creation Ministries International reported:

“  |  For years, many people have scoffed at any suggestion that the evils in society could be linked with the teaching of the theory of evolution. But new research has confirmed what Bible-believers have known all along—that the rising acceptance of Darwin’s theory is related to declining morality in the community.

The research survey of 1535 people, conducted by the Australian National University, revealed that belief in evolution is associated with moral permissiveness. Darwin himself apparently feared that belief in evolution by the common man would lead to social decay. The survey showed that people who believed in evolution were more likely to be in favour of premarital sex than those who rejected Darwin’s theory. Another issue which highlighted the contrast between the effect of evolutionary ideas and that of biblical principles was that Darwinians were reported to be ‘especially tolerant’ of abortion.

In identifying the primary factors determining these differences in community attitudes, the author of the research report, Dr Jonathan Kelley, said: ‘The single most important influence after church attendance is the theory of evolution.’[11]

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## Chinese Christianity and anti-evolution free speech[edit]

As noted above, evangelical Christianity is flourishing in China. Generally speaking, evangelicals have been critical of evolutionism.

Jun-Yuan Chen Research Professor Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, "In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government, but not Darwin."[12]

## See also[edit]

* Global creationism
* Decline of Asian atheism

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ When Will China Become the World’s Largest Christian Country?, Slate
2. ↑ In China, a church-state showdown of biblical proportions
3. ↑
* Dr. Don Batten, A Who’s Who of evolutionists Creation 20(1):32, December 1997.
* Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D.,F.M., Refuting Evolution, Chapter 1, Facts and Bias
4. ↑ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post, May 23, 2013
5. ↑ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post, May 23, 2013
6. ↑ When Will China Become the World’s Largest Christian Country?, Slate
7. ↑ In China, a church-state showdown of biblical proportions
8. ↑ Cracks in the atheist edifice, The Economist, November 1, 2014
9. ↑ Christianity Finds a Fulcrum in Asia by Justin Wood
10. ↑ Christianity in China
11. ↑ Morals decline linked to evolution
12. ↑ Two views about how Darwinism stays in place, with but one difference