Comments on: Japan’s Fake Priests

By: Alilyana

Alilyana — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 05:06:00 +0000

While to some non-religious people and some people that are religious this is fine, but to me as a Christian…. wait as a religious person in general, this is insulting. If someone died in Japan, do they find fake priest to send them off, probably not as there are traditions that must be kept regarding someones death so they don’t come back and haunt you, so why would you allow someone to tie you to someone else for a “lifetime” who wasn’t even trained or ordained to do so? Marriage is an important step in life and yes its nice to have a nice wedding, but your married life continues after the ceremony and you should want someone official to place a blessing upon it. There is nothing cool about Japan’s bad habit of disregarding and disrespecting other culture’s religion, traditions, and customs just for their own entertainment.

By: shackra sislock

shackra sislock — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000

This is very upsetting :-/

By: Rikard Swahn

Rikard Swahn — Sat, 18 May 2013 12:16:00 +0000

But there isn’t much difference really.

By: madbeanman

madbeanman — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:53:00 +0000

I feel that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in an of itself. I am totally non-Christian but I feel its kinda systemic of the idea that Japanese people don’t try to get Western culture. It can lead to a lot of casual very very damaging ignorance. Like when they used to sell golliwog dolls (totally inexcusable). I know from talking to exactly all of my Japanese friends that there lack of knowledge on politics (and Im not talking ins and outs or indepth stuff here), different cultures, homosexuality, civil rights issues etc is kinda terrifying. A little bit of PC ness wouldnt be the worst thing for Japan

By: Henro 88

Henro 88 — Sat, 04 May 2013 09:50:00 +0000

Oh, and I looked at the Wikipedia article you mentioned. It says SOUTH KOREA is the country with the second highest suicide rate.

You know, South Korea with the rapidly growing CHRISTIAN POPULATION?

Gee. Sure fixed their “hope problem”, didn’t it?

By: Henro 88

Henro 88 — Fri, 03 May 2013 23:15:00 +0000

“So basically, you don’t want to believe what I’ve suggested.”

Please, please do not try to play that game – you linked me to World Net F-ing Daily, a known bastion of bias and bigotry. Please do not act like I’M the unreasonable one for asking for another link. You posted a bogus link with no other corroboration – to a survey done by a currently discredited organization. You may not understand journalism or social science, but I have some basic understanding of it, and that article is full of vaguely presented data with no context, no discussion of methods, weasel words; and the leader of the survey, Gallup Jr., giving obviously biased conjecture on things he clearly knows nothing about. The man obviously doesn’t know the first thing about Japan, and the article itself said that Japanese scientists did not think the survey was good.

As for “13 percent of Japanese teens agreed with the statement;” that’s not what I was referring to. I was referring to the quotes from Gallup Jr., which, as presented on the WND article, are pure conjecture.

Even so, only 13% of teens ALWAYS agreeing that they have a purpose on Earth is not the same as them being “hopeless” unless we know what the other options in the survey were. How many kids felt they were “sometimes” without meaning? Or how many felt they DID always have meaning? We don’t know. So the 13% number is pretty much meaningless. On top of that, did the survey make sure that the concept of “meaning in life” was properly conveyed to the children? Did the researchers make sure that this concept would translate properly? You may not know this but Japan has a DIFFERENT CULTURE from America, and even if your translation is perfect, cultural conceptions of “meaning” and “purpose” are different. I see nothing in the WND article to indicate that Gallup has any understanding of these cultural differences. Again, the article quotes Japanese scientists as saying they did not like the survey’s design.

What I DIDN’T mention in my last comment was that my Google searches brought up NO credible commentary on this survey and, in fact, I found Gallup’s data being used on Christian blogs to spread bigoted and ignorant ideas about Japanese culture.

I didn’t ask for another link because I don’t want to believe the data – I asked for another link because all I was able to find was bigotry and stupidity surrounding this article. I didn’t mention that because I was trying to be polite.

“So again, from my perspective, Christianity has something to offer Japan. But that’s just my opinion.” Yes, it is just your opinion because, as of now, I’m not seeing any evidence to suggest that Christianity has a single thing to offer Japan. You have a vague bit of data on “hope” and “meaning,” but, again, the data is vaguely presented in the WND article and Gallup Jr. is CLEARLY projecting his own bias on the issue. Furthermore, to put it simply, you present Japan with a false dilemma – hopelessness or Christianity. News flash – there is MORE THAN ONE WAY to have hope in life. That’s not even getting into the inherent evil present in Christianity that would no doubt have a negative impact on Japan.