Many times I had asked myself whether i would opt to remain a Taoist, following my family's religion, if I was not exposed to the Christian faith in the first place. The answer seems very obvious to me based on the sheer logic of rational thinking. I would probably be more an atheist if not a Christian, as many 'nominal' modern Taoists around me are behaving. Besides having the practical form of basic Taoist rituals, many would be unqualified to be called a true blue Taoist if probed further in terms of their scriptural and historical understanding. If people can now accept Science as the basis for modern evolution, then I think, Taoism has no place to be a valid religion, except for the fact that it was involuntarily forced down onto us by our illiterate ancestors. And it does not help much to know that our old habits die hard, by which I mean our childhood's ways of life have a much hypnotizing effect on us than we think we have safely escaped through modern education and experience.
Here I stand, committed to highlight what I think are the key religious contradictions of Taoism. It would be very useful, I think, if interested parties can spin off further discussions arising from this topic.
"I think therefore I am" ~Rene Descartes
---
1) Providing for the Deceased
Common Taoist's understanding of their deceased family members is that they are somewhere in the underworld or in the far East Paradise (more like a Buddhist's influence). And they require some forms of food (mainly vegetables, sometimes chicken and fishes) and resources (hell-notes, property, servants, and gaining popularity, credit cards) to sustain their post-death standard of living. Offering joss stick and burning candle (nowadays electric light bulb) is a daily affair, failing which a terrible misdeed is done unto the decreased. If one does not do some or all the things above, they are condemned as unfilial family member by their elderly or nosy neighbors.
Contradictions:
- Only Taoists practice the above-mentioned rituals, so what will become of the rest of the billions of non-Taoist deceased? Do they go hungry and be in perpetual poverty in the 'other-world'?
- If we notice carefully, there appear only a handful of names in the altar of a Taoist's house. So what happen to the previous generations before them? Let us do a simple mathematics to illustrate this point. A child has two parents and the two parents each has another two parents of their own. The list goes up exponentially. In a hundred years, there are probably 5 or more generations of a particular family. That will be 2 to the power of 4 (excluding the child), which is 16. How long has the world be in existence? Biblically, it is about 6000 years, but Scientists estimated it to be 13-14 billion years. We do not know exactly how old. But even if we take the more conservative approach, we will still end up with a very long genealogy, longer than any known quoted figure in this world. How do we measure filial piety from this aspect? Would they, I mean non-beneficiaries ancestors, grow 'hungry' and be in perpetual poverty as well? If that is the case, we are all 'unfilial' descendants, Taoists or non-Taoists alike.
2) Money for the Deceased
The current World's currency system is a complex and dynamic form of economics structures. Back in the good old days, people use Barter Trade or precious metals and gems for their daily market transactions. As the economy prospers, there is an inevitable need to revamp the old system and exchange it with the more fluid currency system. What is the currency system? Basically, the dollar notes that we have in our pocket are worthless piece of paper. It has purchasing power because our government guarantees and pegs the paper to certain kinds of value. When we use it to buy things, it will only be accepted if the seller has sufficient trust in our government's guarantee. In other words, the seller is willing to trade his goods or services in exchange for this worthless piece of paper because he can use that to buy other things, provided his seller also has the same trust in that government. A good example of the lack of trust was the banana notes printed by the Japanese when they invaded South-East Asia. These notes devalued quickly because people have no trust in the guarantee provided by the Japanese's government. When the Japanese needed more funds, they simply resorted to printing more notes, having no concrete form of value guarantee. Does it sound like the US government now?
Contradictions:
- Now, who is guaranteeing the hell notes that all Taoists are burning? No one! This is further confirmed by the fact that the printed value is getting larger and larger, even worst than Indonesian Rupiah. It is always easy and profitable for merchants to print big value dollar notes. After all, who will refuse to own more money.
- Again, what about the billions of non-Taoist decreased? Won't there be a major riot in the 'other-world' if hell notes are indeed needed to survive? How about small change? We do not see people burning small changes to their ancestors. Either there is a big inflation in the 'other-world' or hell notes are worthless over there.
- That brings us to another interesting question. What can they buy with the hell notes? If indeed there are thriving economy over there, then offering of joss sticks would be redundant because they can simply buy whatever they need using the hell notes. Economically, Taoists would be the sole wealthy class because they are the only people group with money, the rest of the non-Taoists would perhaps live on the outskirts of economical center, living on non-monetary means. Is that realistic? Non-Taoists can easily outnumber the money-laden Taoists by many millions or billions times. And the amount of hell notes they burned would not be suffice to meet everyone's needs.
to be continued ...]
