A Study of Religious Faith and Religious Feelings

Abstract

In the contemporary world conflicts of different cultures among different nations and regions have become a serious problem. Specifically, religions exist as the basis for different cultures. In our Cross-national survey results, it was found that only 30% of the Japanese have religious faith but 70% think that religious feeling is important and that the meaning of religion is different between the Japanese and Westerners based on our cross-national surveys. The meaning of religion can be understood in the relation between religious attitudes and other social attitudes. The structure of thinking about religion and its relation to other items in our East Asia Value Survey were analyzed using multivariate analysis. The results concerning the differences among these areas were as follows. In Japan, Korea and Hong-Kong, satisfaction about daily life and religious feeling are related positively, whereas in Beijing, Shanghai and Taiwan, these are related negatively. Concerning attitudes toward science and technology, in some areas, including Japan, the medium attitude is related to religious feeling. We are continuing our on-going analysis toward seeking the meaning of religion in contemporary societies by including the results of seven Western nations' surveys.