about belief of Chinese

Before I met greenapple(nickname) several days ago, I never thought about belief. I never think it is problem. My talking with greenapple about religion made me begin to think about this old question.

So, the first question I would ask is if I have a belief? I think I do have a belief. First of all, I am still practicing some traditional Chinese religion. I stand in awe of Heaven and Earth. I think human's power of rationality is limited but the universe we live in is infinite. Although science has been advanced a lot in the late several centuries, science is an endless progress. So I think keeping a awe of the nature is a necessity. Also I have a great respect of my ancestors. I have to be grateful to the heritage(materialistic and spiritual) from my ancestors. It is their great efforts that laid a rich foundation for our modern life. Although I got these ideas from my parents and also practiced them, but I think they are more of a custom than a belief for me because at least I can express my respect on my ancestors.

Moreover, I think my behavior is definitely influenced by Confucianism that prevailed in China for about 2000 years. In the late 20th century, with the demise of Qing dynasty, Confucianism was disdained and discarded by modern Chinese intellectuals. However, I think the basic Confucianism is still in Chinese people's mind as a cultural heritage. We still act according to those ethnics taught by Confucianism, such as respect, loyalty and kindness. So that's about my understanding about my belief.

Actually I heard a lot of points that Chinese is a nonbeliever people. It is not really true. For religion, there are a lot of followers of Buddhism, Taoism and Islam. Moreover, most Chinese have the similar belief as me. Another feature of Chinese belief is pantheism. We worship Emperor Yuhuang, Heaven, Earth, Buddha, Lady Guanyin and also Confucius and Laotze. They just choose some of them to worship. If someone say that Chinese have some kind of pragmatism, it is true. They worship those deity which can bring them goods.