On July 18 Louisa Lim wrote an article for NPR about the growth of religious practice in China. Lim writes:
In the country’s first major survey on religious beliefs, conducted in 2006, 31.4 percent of about 4,500 people questioned described themselves as religious. That amounts to more than 300 million religious believers, an astonishing number in an officially atheist country, and three times higher than the last official estimate, which had largely remained unchanged for years.
The country is becoming more religious and the trend is likely to continue since 62 percent of those who self-identified as religious were age 39 or younger.
So What?
One can imagine given strict governmental regulation of all things religious in China that the first ever survey of religious belief would yield underreporting. If some believers of unapproved religions felt pressured to choose non-belief, then the percentages may be even higher than the survey suggests.
Why do you think there are so many believers in China today? If government restrictions remain in place and proselytizing remains illegal will this adversely impact the spread of Christianity? Why or why not?