{"id":237,"date":"2013-11-30T13:57:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-30T13:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=237"},"modified":"2013-12-22T23:57:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T23:57:59","slug":"emerging-from-state-atheism-with-the-use-of-reason-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2013\/11\/30\/emerging-from-state-atheism-with-the-use-of-reason-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerging from state atheism with the use of reason (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"YuIn the latest edition of the “Meeting” in Rimini<\/b>, organized by the ecclesial movement “Communion and Liberation”,\u00a0 were presented the conversion stories of two intellectuals born under state atheism<\/b>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first \u00a0one is Tianyue Wu<\/span>, professor of philosophy at Peking University: <\/strong>\u00abI come from a Catholic family but for me it was hard to embrace religion\u00bb<\/i>, he said. \u00abAt school they would teach us that religions are just superstitions<\/b>, monsters that belong to a dead and buried past. Chinese society is completely\u00a0 secularized<\/b>, with its “Carpe diem” motto, and Chinese people have now adopted a cynical and utilitarian attitude, due to the major economic growth and the consequent spiritual impoverishment\u00bb.<\/i> However, he stated, \u00abAfter so many years of atheist education<\/b> people still feel that they need to find something that goes beyond life on earth\u00bb.<\/i><\/p>\n

China is a country where already the early missionaries found it hard to \u00abintroduce the idea of a transcendent God among people who thought that the only thing that existed was life on earth, nothing else\u00bb<\/i>. What is more, the \u00abcommunist government made things worse by using atheism <\/b>as an essential part of its ideology, as it sent the missionaries away, as it closed churches and forced the priests that were left not to exercise their ministry.\u00bb<\/i> Even after Mao’s death and the reopening of churches, \u00abthe background remained hostile<\/b> to religion. On the one side this was a difficulty, on the other it was a bright side<\/b> for believers: you were forced to ask yourself which where the reasons for believing and to gain a deeper consciousness of yourself\u00bb.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00abIn a secularized society as China is, I believe that reason and the rational thought<\/b> of Saint Thomas, Saint Augustine and Aristotle may represent the best way to get closer to faith \u00bb<\/i>; this is why he started to hold lectures about them, even if they weren’t very successful at first. But \u00abif I had given up, and had discussed topics which were more popular, I wouldn’t have given to my students the chance to realize how faith and reason<\/b> are actually bond. And today many are those who attend my lectures\u00bb.<\/i> He confessed: \u00abI’m sure that when I show the rationality of faith, even through the “Summa” of Thomas Aquinas, I sow a seed<\/b> in the heart of my students which will help them face such a secularized time as ours, so full of challenges\u00bb.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here below <\/b>the testimony of Tianyue Wu<\/p>\n