While China has many Christians... and Buddhists and Muslims, atheism is still the official position of the Communist state. Members of the Communist Party must attest to their atheism. Still, many people, including many of my students, believe in God. This I know because the kids write about this in their papers, though this is sometimes off topic.
The Chinese don't like religion, especially Western religion because they believe the British misused religion to control the Chinese during the colonial period. And of course, Karl Marx did not care for religion because he felt it was used to keep ordinary people in line.
Lately, there's been an upsurge of atheism in Western countries, chiefly in response to fundamentalist protests against the teaching of evolution. In a parody of religion, a group calling itself the "Pastarians" are contending the world was created by a flying spaghetti monster. Here are a couple of their websites:
http://www.venganza.org/2006/09/24/evolution-is-a-fraud.htm
Some Pastarian literature is really funny, but it can also be inane and tasteless. These folks argue against religion by making it sound ridiculous. Ridiculing something is not the same as proving it wrong. Logicians say that arguments based on ridicule are informal fallacies-- in other words, they don't lead to the truth. It's interesting these people can't find better support for their position.
I don't like it when the Communist state tries to suppress religion. But I don't like indoctrination in any form-- including Christian indoctrination. I think the best way to help people arrive at truth is to teach them to think.
Above: The Flying Spaghetti Monster
Below: The Chinese Dragon and Knot of China
