China Comments on Religion

While conducting my usual routine of scrolling through the Yahoo News articles, I came across one that dealt with China and religion, called "China says aims to banish superstition, promote knowledge."  Apparently, China experienced more than just an economic boom in recent years.  It also has experienced an explosion of religion, having an estimated 100 million believers- half of which are Christian and Muslim while the other half are Buddhist/Daoist.  Head of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, Wang Zuoan, hypothesizes that this has occurred because people are desiring reassurance in an "increasingly complex world."  Although the Chinese government, ruled by the Communist Party, is officially atheist, they have conceded the fact that sometimes religion is capable of producing social harmony.  However, that still isn't stopping them from trying to get their citizens to establish what they see as a "correct world view," and to deal with problems scientifically instead of superstitiously.  That being said, they have accepted the fact that this will be a long process because, as Zuoan puts it, "Religion has been around for a very long time, and if we rush to try to push for results and want to immediately 'liberate' people from the influence of religion, then it will have the opposite effect and push people in the opposite direction."
http://news.yahoo.com/china-says-aims-banish-superstition-promote-knowledge-055415307.html