Anyone Here "into" Taiwanese Religion?

[Confuzius]

I see it as folk religion because there doesn't seem to be any official organization espousing any official doctrine.

No doctrine, perhaps, but that may represent a Christian emphasis. There is certainly organization in terms of temple committees, and at least one "national" (island-wide) body, though the religion is very decentralized (like the Baptists!).

The beliefs and practices seem to vary widely from community to community, temple to temple and person to person.

Again like the Baptists! But Zhinangong, for example, identifies itself as Quanzhen Daojiao, and its priests do rituals on that basis. There is even a little seminary that gives classes in the weekends. (Some Laozi / Zhuangzi and a lot of fortune-telling type stuff.)

The Daoist canon has over 1400 volumes, it would be as if Christianity (to take an example) included in their bible everything from Genesis to the works of Medieval mystics, occultists, the Mormon scriptures, sprinkled with cook books and medical treatises plus some astrology and geology.

Its very hard for Westerners to wrap their heads around

[ktk_ace]

I believe in sleeping. i really do!!

[Tempo Gain]

Western culture is so secularized that Taiwanese folk religion and practices today look completely incomprehensible to us.

However, I wonder if what still exists in Taiwan today is really what Western Christianity was like prior to the spread of science. Maybe this is what Christianity "felt" like in the time of Jesus or even maybe much more recently. If you look at the various Protestants that came to the Americas, like Calvinists, their version of Christianity would look pretty superstitious and wierd to us today, even to Christian believers.

When I recollect on descriptions of western civilization, I recall all kinds of crazy mystics being able to command allegiance. Just think of the crusades and how noblemen were willing to mortgage all of their property and basically bankrupt themselves in order to finance ridiculous expeditions to the middle east with a very low chance of success, much less financial return.

So maybe today's Taiwanese folk religion and practices are just a reflection of the primordial religious stew that most humans lived in before education and science really penetrated deeply enough to secularize them in a substantive way.

I totally agree that Taiwanese folk religion is fascinating. Anyone who has a chance to be involved and check it out, it's totally worth it

[Lros]

It seems people here like to mix'n'match their religious beliefs to suit their personal requirements - there doesn't appear to be much in the way of established dogma.

fantastic! i wish the same could happen in every country, what a great idea.