儒家只产生道德混乱
Confucianism Only Produces Moral Confusion


每日一语：

Religion without morality is a superstition and a curse, and morality without religion is impossible. --- The only salvation for man is in the union of the two as Christianity unites them. --- Mark Hopkins

没有道德的宗教信仰只会是一个迷信与诅咒；没有宗教信仰的道德只会是个死胡同。 --- 只有宗教信仰与道德的天衣无缝的结合才能拯救人的灵魂。 基督的精神就是如此。 --- Mark Hopkins

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Dear Visitors:

I guess when the first English speaker translated 儒家，孔学 into "Confucianism" he must have had the word "Confusion" in his mind, for anyone who studies Confucianism is surely befuddled and dumb-founded by the moral and spiritual confusion embedded intrinsically in its doctrines.

If one studied Greek philosophies represented by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, it is easy to see that a true philosopher writes with many "whys", "whats", "hows", "whos" "wheres" and "whens", and he is only concerned about human happiness and progress. And the Greek philosophers were constantly engaged in self-dialogue and debate when they wrote. Logic and rationality were their tools to reach conclusions from their premises of which they could either confirm or reject. Surely many among the Greek philosophers differed from one another and sharp arguments and debates indeed were the result. But they all thought along the constant and absolute reasoning line -- Logic. Logic is the necessary tool only human mind can grasp and employ. Logic will not deceive you: If your premise is wrong, logic will definitely lead you to wrong conclusions, and if your premise is right, logic will lead to the right place. It is that simple, yet it is ruthless and un-comtaminable.

But reason without logic seems to be what Chinese are good at, even from the days of their saint - Confucius. If one carefully examines the Confucian texts, a simple fact will emerge: Confucius had never engaged in any serious and uncompromising self-debating with logic and "whys, hows, whos, whats, whens and wheres". He only demanded and asked people to follow his doctrines of social classes and stratifications -- emperors and subordinates, fathers and sons, male and female and so on.... But why such an order? From whom it comes from? What is the basis of authority? Confucius had never explained and never bothered to. He just wanted to maintain that order - an existing order of oppression and slavery of human mind. There had never been analysis in his writing from pro and con stand points. "Things are just they are. Orders and peace should be maintained at any cost." These are the only conclusions he ever drew. Strangely, no one in China had ever questioned his own illogical and irrational reasoning. And they all timidly and meekly follow what he told them.

But people from the West properly named him Confucius -- That is, his points of views truly confuse people, morally, spiritually and logic-wise. More deplorably, fake and artificial philosophers like Confucius have become cultural saints and icons for all of China, and indeed all of Asia. The result, as the Asian history shows, has been tragic and disastrous. Even today, the Chinese and the Asians still have trouble utilizing reasoning with logic, still are gripped by the paralyzing, powerful cultural narcotics from Confucianism, still tangled in the webs of despotism and lack of creativity. They have indeed NOT waken up yet, to this monstrous deceit and lie. They have indeed NOT had the courage to depart from their past confusion and addiction.

Courage indeed is needed if one wants to free himself from the demeaning and degrading Confucian culture and the paralyzing addiction to a senseless and logic-free order.

Please be constantly on guard against confusion and Confucianism. Please constantly ask yourself "why, how, what, who, when and where" when you reason for yourself. Please examine your conclusions with logic to see if your premises are moral and right and whether or not they lead to human happiness and progress. Please use English as your main tool of language, NOT Chinese, to engage in vigorous debate and dialogue with your colleagues and yourself.... Then and only then you have a chance to clear up the moral confusion in your head, to clean up the comtaminations from your soul and start to embark on a brand-new course, with the opposite direction, with optimism and positivity toward life, existence, liberty, justice and pursuit of happiness.

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯