The conflict between science and religion was an important aspect of the dispute between China and the West during the May Fourth Movement. Religious criticism is an important part of the anti-traditional ideological revolution of the New Culture Movement, and the main ideological weapon of the New Cultural People’s anti-religion is scientism. Scientism is one of the most influential new trends of thought during the May Fourth Movement. With the belief that science is omnipotent, it has become a popular new world outlook for intellectuals in the transformation of ancient China. The May Fourth scientism originated from Chen Duxiu, the father of the New Culture Movement, who respected "science" and "democracy" as the pillars of modern civilization and the key to the reconstruction of Chinese culture. His scientism religious view of "replacement of religion with science", with radical anti-traditionalism and scientism utopia, became an important manifestation of the radicalism of the May 4th culture.

French Positivism and Scientism

The New Culture Movement has a distinctive French Enlightenment color due to the radical enlightenment thoughts of its spiritual leader Chen Duxiu. As a revolutionary and enlightener following the French Revolution, Chen Duxiu has a soft spot for modern French civilization. He is fluent in French and has translated "Les Miserables" by the French writer Hugo. The "Youth Magazine" founded by him is unique with the French name LA JEUNESSE. In the article "French People and Modern Civilization", Chen Duxiu enthusiastically praised the French civilization and respected it as the cradle of modern European civilization, emphasizing that modern European civilization is particularly important in the contribution of legal persons, and the three most epoch-making essences of modern civilization, such as human rights. Said, the theory of biological evolution and socialism were founded by the legal persons of Laffiette, Lamarck, and Saint Simon respectively. "The three major civilizations of the modern age are all gifted by the French. The world cannot be Lanci, and today’s darkness still lives. How much".

The ideological origin of the New Culture Movement and the French Enlightenment is the most distinctive characterization of the two banners of "democracy" and "science" revealed in "New Youth". Chen Duxiu classified "democracy" and "science" as the two backbones of modern civilization, and respected them as the "Mr. Virtue" (Democracy) and "Mr. Race" (Science) leading the revival of China, and became famous and influential in the new cultural movement. Two profound symbols of enlightenment.

Chen Duxiu's view of democracy mainly uses Rousseau's radical democratic ideas and the French "Declaration of Human Rights" as ideological resources. His view of science originated from Comte's scientism in the French positivist tradition, which is in the same line as Descartes' French rationalist tradition. Auguste Comte is one of Chen Duxiu's most important European thought teachers. The connection between Chen Duxiu's scientism and French rationalism and positivism has not received enough attention from academia.

Scientism was born in France. Hayek made a research on the roots of scientism. He pointed out: “When people continue to walk along a path that will bring them great victory, they may also fall into the deepest fallacy. Pride in the achievements of natural sciences. , And the belief in the omnipotence of its methods, had unparalleled legitimacy at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, especially in Paris, where almost all the great scientists at the time gathered...Two powerful strands that changed social thinking in the nineteenth century Spiritual power—modern socialism and modern positivism that we prefer to call scientism—is the direct product of a group of professional scientists and engineers formed in Paris...it is the Paris Polytechnic Institute."

Scientism originated from Descartes and flourished from the French Enlightenment philosophers from the "Encyclopedia School" to Condorcet, and was integrated with Comte. Comte was the founder of French positivism and the father of sociology in the 19th century. This young student of the Paris Polytechnic Institute was expelled from the college on the eve of his graduation for leading the student wave. He used to be the secretary of Saint-Simon, the famous French utopian socialist, and Saint-Simon, who believed in the omnipotence of science, was a student of the leader of the "Encyclopedia" and the mathematician physicist D'Alembert. The French positivism founded by Comte is in the same line with the rationalist tradition of the French Enlightenment since Descartes.

The era of French Enlightenment was a "century of reason" and also a "century of science". As Hayek said: "The characteristic of the French Enlightenment is that it showed an unprecedented and universal enthusiasm for natural science. Voltaire can be called the originator of Newtonian worship, and later Saint-Simon pushed it to the absurd. To the extent." "In the entire development process of French positivism, perhaps influenced by Descartes, this rationalist factor has always played an important role."

In 1830, the young Comte began publishing a six-volume masterpiece "Positive Philosophy Course". In his book, he summarized the evolution of human reason into three stages: theological stage-metaphysical stage-scientific stage. The scientific stage is the highest stage of human intellectual development. In the three stages of "theology", "metaphysics" and "science", human intellect is characterized by "fiction," "abstraction," and "positivity." In the final analysis, human history is a spiritual history, and the driving force of social evolution is the evolution of human intellect. Corresponding to the three stages of "theology," "metaphysics," and "science," the development of human intelligence is the "military period," "abstract legal power period," and "industrial period." The first three volumes of "Positive Philosophy Course" discuss the philosophy of mathematics, astronomy, philosophy of physics, philosophy of chemistry, and philosophy of biology; the last three volumes are sociology, including social statics and social dynamics. Kong Decheng, who was left behind by Saint Simon, founded "Social Physics" based on Newtonian mechanics. As a study of the overall development of mankind, this new discipline embodies Comte's grand ambition: to discover the inevitable and inevitable laws of nature in the progress of civilization, like gravity. Comte’s positivism is a kind of scientism, and its tendency of the supremacy of science and the omnipotence of science represents the extremely optimistic worship of science in the era of the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution.

Chen Duxiu's scientific outlook is deeply influenced by Comte's positivism and has a strong scientific tendency. He emphasized in "A Youth with a Sabre" (1917): "Conte, a scholar of law and sociology, divided human evolution into religion, philosophy, and science. Three periods." In "Modern Western Education" (1917), Chen Duxiu He pointed out: "Conte divides human evolution into three eras: the first is the era of religious superstition, the second is the era of metaphysics and fantasy, and the third is the era of scientific empirical evidence. Since the eighteenth century, European culture has gradually progressed from the second era. By the third era, all politics, morals, education, and literature were all without the spirit of scientific empirical evidence. Recently, monistic philosophy and natural literature have become more and more developed, and all religious superstitions and illusory ideals have been left out of the sky." Comte The three-stage theory of Chen Duxiu became the basic principle of Chen Duxiu's progressive views of science, culture, and civilization history.

The religious view of an atheist

The religious critique of "New Youth" was inspired by the Confucian movement of "establishing Confucianism as the state religion" led by Kang Youwei and Chen Huanzhang. It is an important step in the ideological revolution of the New Culture Movement and the construction of a new outlook on life.

Chen Duxiu is an atheist, and his religious views have a strong rationalist tendency. In 1915, he discussed religious issues in the preface to his friend Su Manshu's "The Crimson Shade": "'There are two most difficult problems in life: death and love.' Both death and love are inevitable in life. The Buddha said twelve causes and conditions, and about their righteousness: Old death is due to life, birth is due to love, and love is due to ignorance. Husbands are endless, ignorance has no beginning and end has end? Alaya contains everything, and ignorance is also there. Among them, how can things emerge that can be destroyed? One heart has two functions of birth and death, and if it can help A but end B? Its reason is difficult to understand by common sense, but it is a delusion to die and abandon love. The joys are mixed, and it is not possible to say the ultimate. Yahshi’s saying that all things were created by gods and returned to gods is similar to the Indian Brahman’s Brahma. But the difference lies in the fact that Yahism does not deny the present world. He also advocates that God loves mankind, and that mankind should also love each other in order to be divine will. Examining the two problems of death and love, I regard the Buddha's view as appropriate and easy to implement. However, poor human beings are absolutely incapable of moving. What does it say? Or the Almighty God Body, which is denied by those who advocate the natural transformation of all things, and it is not seen as a teaching to settle down and stand for life. But what is the true result of life? Believe and conceal yourself, don’t be suspicious.” In Chen Duxiu’s view, although the Christian doctrine of death and love is more appropriate and easy to implement than Buddhism, religion is, after all, the product of human underdeveloped reason, and it is indispensable for it. Be skeptical.

In "Today's Education Policy" (1915), Chen Duxiu believes that science is closer to the truth of life than religion. He denies Buddhism and Christianity's outlook on life, and advocates a realistic outlook on life that conforms to scientific principles: "With changes in phenomena, The existence of the suspicion of truth and constant, outside the material world, assumes that Brahma is true as the body, thin reality and imaginative, tired of stealing peace, degeneration of the rule of man, the decline of the Indian nation, and the ancient pope’s style. It is not sinless. The teaching of Jesus, It is believed that man made by God and returned to God, the good gives the life after death, the evil takes it, and life is the cause of the gods. Although it is born, it means eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, and does not denounce the existence of the human world as illusion, so believe in The people of his religion are not as violent as India. In addition, the modern science is booming, the rule of man and the pope stand side by side, and the ancients say that superstition is not enough to solve the problems of life." In Chen Duxiu's view, religious superstition is not enough to solve the problems of life. "In short, what is the truth of life, the ancient theory, and the constant perception that it is difficult; the science of the science, the difference is that it is close. The modern scientist's explanation of life is also: the individual is in the world, as is the cell in the human body, metabolism, life and death There is no escape from reason; only the descendants of the material legacy, the history of the immortal spirit of the atom; the life of the immortal individual has no continuity, and the life of the whole is uninterrupted; to understand the life and death, neither tire of life nor fear of death The existence of knowing the reality of our body is a valuable gap in the permanent life of mankind. It is very non-temporary, and benefits are not illusions and voids; there is merit in the real world, but there is no hope outside the real world. How superstitious is cut; this modern European spirit of the times is also...realism, sincerely the first policy of education for the poor and weak in this world."

In "The True Meaning of Life" (1918), Chen Duxiu questioned the illusion of Buddhism and Christianity's outlook on life: "What is life for and what should be done? I think what Buddhists say is too roundabout. Personally. Although it is an illusion, can the whole of life in the world be said to be not real? Life is'truth' in nature, why is there suddenly'ignorance'? Now that there is'ignorance', the'ignorance' of all living beings , Why can it suddenly disappear? Since'ignorance' is immortal, how can all phenomena of birth and death be avoided? All phenomena of birth and death are unavoidable. When we are in this world, we have to think about what we do and what should we do Yes. What Jesus said was fabricated out of thin air and cannot be verified. God can create mankind, but what did God make? It is impossible to prove whether God has or not; then Jesus' outlook on life is completely unbelievable. "

Chen Duxiu believes that religion belongs to the belief of heteronomy, and that in the future civilization will replace heteronomy with self-discipline. Self-discipline and heteronomy are the watershed between the ideals of old and new civilizations. He pointed out in "An Answer to Yu Songhua" (1917): "Religion is a thing, no matter how it is related to the life of noble culture, if it has higher social value, but its fundamental spirit belongs to his beliefs. Divine will is the highest command; ethics and morality belong to the consciousness of self-dependence, and conscience is the highest command; this past civilization and the future civilization are the main points of difference between the old and the new ideals."

In Chen Duxiu's view, the evils of religion are hindering the progress of civilization. In "Answer Yu Songhua" (1917), he pointed out: "Whether human beings (not only Chinese) can completely abandon religion, it is not a piece of rhetoric that can be arbitrary. However, stupidity appeals to intuition, and it is more harmful than teaching. The benefit is less. For a nation that believes in religion, such as Jews or India, the cause of its weakness is religious superstition, which is an obstacle to the improvement of its civilization... As for the beneficial part of religion, it pretends that the philosophy of art can be replaced. Without religion, we may not be spiritually ignorant. We can say that we must have no faith. It is not necessary to say that we must not have religious belief. It is not necessarily true... Our people have no faith and have extremely weak religious concepts. Today, if you want to cultivate faith to enhance the personality of the people, there is not necessarily no better way. If you use the same force to advocate and make it out of nothing, why bother to add more, expecting that it is not a religion that does more harm than good? This is so stupid. Reasons to condemn all religions."

In Chen Duxiu's view, although Buddhism is "a broad and profound philosophy," its drawbacks are that it leads to the negative and world-weary national spirit. "Wei and Jin are repaying, Buddhism flows in, things are ruined day by day, people's interests are stolen, from disgusting and discouraged, from discouragement to passivity, from passivity to degeneration and corruption, everything is up and doing, the word is delusion, the world is born indefinitely, and the world The Dharma is bad...Buddhas take the world and do everything and deny it. How can they lead the people into religion? The disadvantage is one." This has another disadvantage."

For the enlightened Chen Duxiu, religion is a product of the age of ignorance, which hinders social evolution and contradicts modern civilization. "All religions are not useful for governance, and other idols, we can boldly declare."

Replacing religion with science

"Science" and "Democracy" are the two enlightenment banners unveiled by Chen Duxiu in the New Culture Movement. He regards them as the essence of modern civilization and the key to China's modernization, and he will remain committed to them throughout his life. In the "Advice to the Youth" (1915) at the headline of the first issue of "Youth Magazine", Chen Xiangqing appealed: "People who want to escape from the age of ignorance, and the people who are ashamed to be shallow, they rush to catch up, and we should pay equal attention to science and human rights." In "Positive Situations" (1917), he reiterated: "Politics has republic, academics have science, and it is the second great treasure of modern civilization." In "The Reply to the Crimes of the Book of Records" (1919) In, he compared "democracy" and "science", namely "Democracy" and "Science", as the saviors of civilization "Mr. De" and "Mr. Sai". "Because Westerners supported Mr. De and Sai, how much trouble and blood they shed, Mr. De and Mr. Sai gradually rescued them from the dark and led them to the light world. We now believe that only these two gentlemen can Rescue all the darkness in China's politics, morals, academics and thoughts."

Regarding science, Chen Duxiu's definition is: "Who is the science? Our concept of things, comprehensive and objective phenomena, appealing to subjective rationality without contradiction." Science is the trend of the evolution of civilization through imagination. "In the old days, the shallow people today have imagination but no science. Religious beauty is the product of the imagination. The reason why modern Europe is superior to others is the prosperity of science. Its merits are not under the theory of human rights. There are two rounds of Yan. Today is changing with each passing day, and every thing is fine, one thing is fine, and the scientific law of non-prosecution is used to determine its gains and losses. Its effect will make the thoughts in the world behave like rationality and superstition. Cut it out, and the ignorance and recklessness will stop." Chen's theory of evolution from religion to science clearly originated from Comte's three-stage positivism paradigm.

In "Idol Destruction" (1918), Chen Duxiu classified all religious gods as unverifiable idols. "If the existence of ghosts and gods between heaven and earth cannot be proven, all religions are a deceptive idol; Amitabha is a deception; Jehovah God is also a deception; the Jade Emperor is also a deception; worship respected by all religious scholars. The gods, buddhas and ghosts are all useless and deceptive idols, and they should all be destroyed!"

In Chen Duxiu's view, religion is a product of the age of human ignorance, and it will eventually decline with the evolution of human reason and the progress of science. In Chen's Comte-style spiritual evolution sequence, the replacement of science and religion is the general trend of the progress of human civilization. In "Revisiting the Problem of Confucianism" (1917), Chen optimistically predicted the evolutionary trend of "substituting science for religion": "In the future, human beings must take science as the right track for their true faith and deeds, and all religions are being abandoned. Among them...there are two laws that cover the universe: one is natural law, and the other is human law. Natural law is universal, permanent, inevitable, science belongs to it; man is law, partial, temporary, Of course, religion, morality, and laws belong to it... The future evolution of mankind should follow the sprouting science of today, and it should be developed day by day. All man-made laws should be corrected to have the same effect as natural laws, and then the universe and life will truly fit. Isn’t it our greatest ultimate goal? It’s the secret of life in the universe. It’s beyond science to resolve doubts and sorrows. It is only religion. I think that the advancement of science has a long way to go. In the end, it’s difficult to resolve doubts. On the other hand, if religion can liberate people, Yu thinks that it must first deceive oneself, first overcome self-understanding, but not true interpretation. Truly can resolve doubts, but science. Therefore, Yu advocates replacing religion with science. Exploiting our true beliefs will eventually come to fruition. If you are superstitious to get rid of religion, you will just'have nothing to do with haste.'" Chen Duxiu's proposition of "replace religion with science" is full of extremely optimistic scientism.

 Advocate the spirit of Christ

Although Chen Duxiu opposes religion, he has a slightly better evaluation of Christianity among Chinese and Western religions, and believes that Christianity is superior to Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. In the spring of 1919, he answered the "Weekly Review" reader Shi Yun: "Although I don't believe in religion at all, he compares various religions and arbitrarily chooses Christianity as the best: and for Chinese society, it has'united the people'. The two advantages of breaking down superstition... Mr., as a Christian, should be able to give full play to the purpose of Christ’s fraternity, and strive to promote the Confucianism of “no officialdom and unrighteousness” and the passive Buddhism (Although Buddhism is aware of his teachings, it is Being born, it is negative to the law of the world), the Taoism of demons and ghosts, to relieve our corrupt and degraded society."

Chen Duxiu's view of Christianity has undergone dramatic changes. After the May Fourth Movement, he resolutely walked out of his study and devoted himself to the social movement protesting the Beiyang government. On the evening of June 11, 1919, Chen Duxiu was arrested and imprisoned by the Beijing Police Department for distributing leaflets at Beijing Xiangchang New World. During the confinement period, a "Bible" changed his view of Christianity. According to Hu Shi's memory: "During the detention period, there were no books and newspapers to read. There was only one Christian translation of the Old Testament and the New Testament in Mandarin. It is not forbidden to read. He was a very affectionate person. After reading the Christian Bible this time, I was very moved." Since then, Chen Duxiu's religious outlook has undergone a major change, and he has turned to affirm the value of Christianity. In February 1920, he published "Christianity and the Chinese" in "New Youth", changing his previous attitude of despising religion, and highly praised and advocated the spirit of Christianity and Jesus.

Chen Duxiu emphasized that Christianity has been practiced in China for four to five hundred years, and the issue of Christianity is a major issue that should be studied in Chinese society. In the Middle Ages in Europe, the crime of Christians under the pretense of believing in God and religion and oppressing science and free thinkers cannot be denied, but the two sources of European culture cannot be denied, one is Greek academics and the other is Christianity. Due to the extraordinary progress of modern history and natural sciences, Christianity's "creation theory", "Trinity theory" and all kinds of spirituality have all lost their authority, and everyone thinks that Christianity has gone bankrupt. "I think Christianity is the religion of love. If we don't learn Nietzsche to oppose human love one day, we cannot say that Christianity has fundamentally collapsed. The basic doctrine of Christianity is only faith and love, and everything else is just branches and leaves." Regarding Christian issues, we must not only have an awareness so that he will no longer have troubles, but also have a deep understanding to cultivate the noble, great personality and passionate and deep emotions of Jesus in our blood. We rescued from being fallen into the cold, dark, and dirty pit."

In Chen Duxiu's view, the highest culture that dominates the Chinese people's hearts is the morality and morality of Tang Yu since the three generations. The highest culture that dominates the hearts of Westerners is the sentiment of beauty since Greece and the sentiment of Christian faith and love. The similarities between these two cultural sources are super-material spiritual impulses; the differences are that morality is natural, intellectual, and rational, and emotions are natural, blind, and super-rational. Moral behavior, knowing why it should be, is biased toward acquired knowledge; emotional behavior, not asking why but just willing to do so, is biased toward innate instinct. The origin of morality is naturally also from emotion, and morality that is against human nature can not be regarded as morality. But once it falls into the ethical norm, it is an impulse that is biased towards knowledge and rationality, rather than a natural, purely emotional impulse. The same act of loyalty and filial piety also has two distinctions between ethical and emotional. Emotional loyalty and filial piety are introspective, natural, and pure; ethical loyalty and filial piety are sometimes external, unnatural, and hypocritical. Of course, we should not underestimate the impulse of knowledge and reason; we should pay more attention to the impulse of natural emotion.

Chen Duxiu blamed the insensitivity of the Chinese people on the birth defects of Chinese culture. He pointed out that the source of Chinese culture lacks pure emotions of beauty and religion. Not only does the morality of ethics depart from emotions, but the literature that mainly expresses emotions also departs from emotions and adds ethical (respecting the sage, carrying the Tao) and material (respect for merit, resentment, obscenity) colors. This is exactly what The root cause of the Chinese people's depravity. "To remedy this shortcoming now, it seems that beauty and religion should be used to guide our emotions... The emotions of beauty and religion are pure and deep into the source of our lives. I advocate that Jesus' noble, great personality and warmth Deep emotions are cultivated in our blood for this reason."

Regarding Christianity, Chen Duxiu believes that most of the Christian "creation theory", "trinity theory" and various spirits are attached to ancient legends and have been destroyed by history and science. We should abandon our old beliefs and look for new ones. The new faith is the noble, great personality and passionate, deep emotions of Jesus. "The personality and emotions that Jesus taught us are the lofty spirit of sacrifice, the great spirit of forgiveness, and the spirit of equal fraternity." "This is the personality and emotions that Jesus taught us, which is the fundamental Christian doctrine. Except. We don’t know about other Christian doctrines about the personality and emotions of Jesus. Scientists have never destroyed this fundamental doctrine and will not destroy it in the future." Chen believes that the fundamental Christian doctrine will not be destroyed by science in the future.

The jailed Chen Duxiu was moved and inspired by reading the "Bible" and realized the eternal spiritual value of Christianity, that is, Jesus' "noble spirit of sacrifice, great spirit of forgiveness, and equal fraternity", and then compared Chinese culture with Christianity , Pointed out that Chinese culture lacks the emotional failure of beauty and religion, and advocated that Christianity should be used to remedy the emotional failure of Chinese culture. Chen's new thinking on Christianity and the comparison between Christianity and Confucianism have advanced the dialogue between Chinese and Western cultures to the ultimate care level, which is an area that has received less attention in the New Culture Movement.

For Chen Duxiu, religion is no longer the dregs of old culture to be eliminated by the New Culture Movement, but an integral part of the construction of a new culture. He is in "What is the New Culture Movement?" "(1920) pointed out: Religion occupies a large part of the old culture, and naturally it cannot be without it in the new culture. Human behavior is entirely due to external stimuli, and internal reactions occur. Whether to react internally or not, what method to use for the reaction, knowledge can be used as an intermediary guide, but the most influential thing is instinctive emotional impulse. The instinctive emotional impulse makes it strong, sincere, and noble. The intellectual rationality and morality are not as powerful as art, music, and religion. If knowledge and instinct are not developed together, human nature cannot be regarded as fully developed. Therefore, James does not oppose religion, and any pragmatist who has practical needs in society should not oppose it. If there is a social need for religion, it is useless to oppose it. Only by advocating a better religion to replace the worse religion is it a good thing. Russell is not opposed to religion either. He predicts that there will be a new religion in the future. "I think the new religion does not have a solid foundation for initiating faith. If the non-scientific superstitions attached to the legends of the old religion are removed, it is even a new religion. Some people think that religion is another power. May I ask to expand our knowledge and doctrines to benefit our emotional arts, Music, which is free from his power? Some people think that religion has only relative value, not absolute value. What in the world has absolute value? People who advocate the New Culture Movement nowadays do not pay attention to art and music, but also oppose religion. , I don’t know what kind of mechanical condition we want to make human life into. This is completely ignorant of the origin of our life activities. This is a big mistake. I was the first person to admit the mistake.” Here, Chen Gongran admitted. His previous anti-religious new cultural view was biased.

After the May 4th Movement, Chen Duxiu's new thinking on Christianity represented a major change in his religious outlook. He recognized the spiritual value of Christianity and the cultural function of personality cultivation, and changed his previous simplistic view of scorning religion.

The New Scientific View of Historical Materialism

After the May Fourth Movement, Chen Duxiu's biggest ideological change was his conversion to Marxism. His change of thinking from an Enlightenment scholar to a Marxist symbolizes the turbulent trend of thought in the New Culture Movement. What is intriguing is that Chen Duxiu’s thought changes have changed and remain unchanged: for “democracy”, he bid farewell to the “bourgeois democracy” of Western liberalism and embraced the new “dictatorship of labor and peasantry” in Soviet Russia; and for “science”, He still adheres to his positivist scientific outlook, and his scientism belief is even strengthened by his belief in Marx's historical materialism.

After Chen Duxiu accepted the historical materialism, he began to try to explain religious issues with the principle that his social existence determines social consciousness. He pointed out in "Education and Society-A Speech at the Guangdong Provincial Education Association" (1921): The power of society dominating the individual is great; the power of individual dominating the society is small. The Confucius of China, the Sakyamuni of India, and the Jesus of Europe seem to be powerful enough to dominate society. However, his personal power is actually produced by society. Shakyamuni’s doctrine was cultivated by Indian society, and non-Indian society was created by Shakyamuni’s doctrine. Because India is located in the tropics, with scorching heat, and everyone has a world-weary and pessimistic thought, which led to the doctrine of the Buddhism. Christianity emphasizes freedom and enterprising. Although it is different from Confucian family thoughts and Sakyamuni’s world-weary pessimism, the reason is that there are many islands in Europe and the transportation is convenient. People are lighter than migration, so there is no family concept. Moreover, it is located in the northern temperate zone and the climate is mild, so it is always pessimistic. The Christian doctrine was also nurtured by the environment, and it was not built by Jesus to transform humans in Europe.

In "Christianity and the Christian Church" (1922), Chen Duxiu again criticized Christianity. He emphasized that criticizing Christianity should be viewed from both sides of the Christian doctrine and the Christian church. "The simplest and easiest shortcoming in the doctrine is that God's omnipotence and God's omnipotence cannot be contradicted. According to the evils we see in our daily life and the evils in the holy book and the sins atonement by Jesus on behalf of mankind, Who created this evil world? Mankind is innocent, and sin is the creator; from this it can be seen that God is either'incompletely good' or'incompletely powerful'. We can never believe in the all-good and almighty God for no reason. To create such a wicked world. In addition, the history of Jesus’ life, such as the birth, miracle, and resurrection, has no historical and scientific evidence to make us truly believe. This is also a small shortcoming in doctrine. Fraternity and sacrifice are naturally Christianity. The most precious element in the doctrine; but under the aggression of imperialism and capitalism, we have to restrict why we should sacrifice and whom we should love. Blind fraternity and sacrifice will cause sin." "As for the crimes committed by the Christian church since ancient times, it is really piled up like a mountain, and it makes people feel grief and trembling to speak of it!"

The "Science and Metaphysics Debate" in 1923 was a controversy between scientism and anti-scientism. New Confucian Zhang Junmai used the Kantian dualism to distinguish between "science" and "view on life" in his speech on "View on Life" delivered by Tsinghua School to fight against the scientism of the New Culture Movement. Zhang's speech caused a great uproar, which attracted a strong backlash from geologist Ding Wenjiang's criticism of the "metaphysical ghost". Ding insisted on the monism of science that science can dominate the outlook on life. Later, a large number of well-known intellectuals who believed in scientism, including Hu Shi, became involved in the controversy, which evolved into a "scientific and metaphysical controversy." Chen Duxiu was invited by the Yadong Library to write a preface to the controversial essay "Science and Outlook on Life" (1923), at which time he was already the leader of the founding Communist Party. In the preface, Chen Duxiu classified this "science and outlook on life debate" as a discussion of culturally backward countries. He criticized the Scientology School for not hitting the key points of the Metaphysical School, and it could even be said that it was defeated. He invoked "social science" to defend the authority of science dominating the outlook on life and refute Zhang Junmai's anti-scientism viewpoint. This Marxist still reiterated Comte’s three-stage evolution theory when discussing science and the outlook on life: “Comte divides human society into three eras, and we are still in the era of religious superstition... The modern age has progressed from the era of superstition to the age of science. After the barking of Mr. Metaphysics, no one can deny this kind of actual social phenomenon. If you can’t deny it, you have to admit that the three eras of Comte are a law of social science. This law can explain many times and many times. The society and many individuals have different outlooks on life."

Zhang Junmai listed nine outlooks on life in his speech at Tsinghua University, emphasizing that the outlook on life is subjective, derived from intuition, comprehensive, free will, and derived from the unity of personality, rather than objective, rational, analytical, The science of causality governs. Chen Duxiu insisted on the significant connection between the outlook on life and science (social science), and used historical materialism to explain the material basis of Zhang's so-called nine outlooks on life. Regarding the issue of religion, Chen explained the evolution of religion and the evolutionary process from religion to science with historical materialism: "The changes in religious thought are more governed by the times and social forces: the primitive religions of various ethnic groups, based on the myths preached, Most of the religions of nature worship the sun, fire, mountains, boulders, poisonous snakes, beasts, etc.; later in the agricultural economic patriarchal society, polytheisms such as the ancestors of the ancestors of the gods and gods became popular; later, the commerce developed, and with the unification movement of the country, the monotheism became To gain power; later industry developed, science flourished, and the theory of godlessness and non-religion followed; that is, in the same era, the speed of evolution of various nationalities and social industries was different, and religious thoughts also changed accordingly, such as Africa, America, and South Asia. The barbarians are still in the age of natural religion. China and India are many gods and Europe and the United States, where business and industry are developed, and they worship Christ; if the Chinese saints were born in London, they also have to worship the foreign religion and sing the Lord; and make Christian believers live In the remote areas of China, he also worships his ancestors and foxes." Chen concluded: "We believe that only objective material reasons can change society, explain history, and dominate the outlook on life. This is the'materialistic view of history'."

Chen Duxiu firmly believes that historical materialism, as the truth of "science"—social science—can completely dominate the outlook on life. Due to the advancement of social science, science has expanded its boundaries and strengthened its authority to govern life and the world. Obviously, Chen's scientism belief is further strengthened by the historical materialism that reveals the truth of social science.

 Science and Religion

The May Fourth Movement is a "scientific era." On the one hand, the New Culture Movement’s ardent pursuit of science has established the supreme intellectual authority of "science", and "science" and "democracy" have thus become the two keys to the reconstruction of Chinese culture. But on the other hand, it also produced a scientism myth of "scientific omnipotence". As Zhang Hao said: "The May Fourth Movement also opened up Chinese intellectuals' long-standing illusion and exaggeration of the performance of science, thus creating a kind of'pan-science' or'scientism' mentality. This mentality believes that: Science is the only way to know the truth; it is the only manifestation of human reason. It can not only help us understand phenomena, but also determine our values, outlook on life, and outlook on the universe. Therefore, with scientific knowledge, mankind can solve all problems sooner or later. Under the control of this mentality, it is no wonder that the "May 4th" intellectuals shouted the slogan of "Science is omnipotent." In Zhang Hao's view, the mentality of seeking a panacea that can cure all diseases is anxious to save the nation. The May 4th intellectuals found "Mr. Virtue" and "Mr. Sai", and "Mr. Virtue" and "Mr. Sai" have often unconsciously turned into "Bodhisattva Virtue" and "Bodhisattva Sai" in their minds.

The fallacy of scientism is the arrogance of reason. It expands the science of the natural system to the humanistic world in an all-encompassing manner, severely eroding the traditional humanistic value, and deepening the crisis of meaning in modern society. Zhang Hao pointed out: "In the early 20th century, the appearance of scientism in China was, first of all, a scientific concept that transcended duty. It believed that science is an all-encompassing natural system that not only provides us with the objective truth about the natural universe. It also indicates the outlook of life and society. Secondly, scientism also contains a belief that science represents the mode of thinking and the methodology that represents the only effective way to understand life and the world."

Regarding the scientism utopia, Arnold Joseph Toynbee pointed out: "The utopian theories in the early modern period are almost all optimistic. This is because scientific progress and spiritual progress are not clearly regarded as two completely different things. They mistakenly believed that accumulating scientific and technological progress would naturally accumulate spiritual progress. This fantasy of modern Western Europe was shaken by the First World War."

Chen Duxiu originated from Comte’s positivism view of science, and most typically represents the "pan-science view" of scientism during the May Fourth Movement. This "pan-science view" regards science as a symbol of progress, respects science as the highest expression of human reason and a model of human knowledge, and regards science as the only way to understand nature and society, and to understand life and the world. As a result, science transcends the realm of knowledge and adopts an ideological new worldview, becoming a new belief that replaces religion. Chen's scientism myth of "science is omnipotent" is fully revealed in his positivist religious view of "religion with science" and the belief that science can dominate the outlook on life.

Religion is the great heritage of the "axial civilization" of mankind. Religious wisdom deals with the anxiety of human existence caused by suffering, sickness, death, fate, etc., which are unavoidable in life. The knowledge of science and the belief of religion are two parallel lines of human civilization. They are independent and have different functions. Science can never replace religion. Rather, the end of science is the starting point of religion.

Since the Enlightenment, Christianity has been hit unprecedentedly by science. However, the anti-religious thoughts of French rationalism did not become the mainstream of the European Enlightenment. Some great European Enlightenment thinkers are mostly scientific and religious reconciliationists. In the United Kingdom, Newton, Locke, and Smith all held a harmonious dualism of science and religion, while Hume advocated the dualism of "facts" and "value". In Germany, Kant's phenomenological ontological dualism distinguishes pure reason from practical reason, thus leaving a place for religious belief. Modern civilization ended the religious dominance of the Middle Ages, but it has not and cannot go to the extreme of another dominance of science. The parallelism of science and religion is the basic trend of modern civilization.

Regarding the relationship between science and religion, the British philosopher AN Whitehead pointed out: "The conflict between religion and science is just an innocuous thing, but people emphasize it too much...what religion and science deal with Each is different. Science is engaged in observing certain general conditions that control physical phenomena, while religion is completely immersed in the mysticism of moral and aesthetic values. On the one hand, it possesses the law of gravity, on the other hand it possesses gods. The mystical thinking of sexual beauty. On the one hand, what you see is not seen on the other hand, and on the other hand, what you see is not seen in this respect." The conflict between religion and science is only a sign, and it shows that there is more. Broad truths and better prospects, where deeper religion and subtler science will reconcile each other."

It is intriguing that some great scientists in modern Europe have not changed their pious Christian beliefs. They are the reconciliationists of science and religion. As the American sociologist Edward Shils said: “In the great age of science, some great scientists believed that their work was the same as theological will, that is, to understand the universe by discovering the laws created by God. Galileo Think of nature as the “second book of God”—the first book is the Bible. Kepler believes that God created the world and everything in accordance with the pure primitive model Plato called the “idea”. These models also It can be understood as a mathematical structure. In Heisenberg’s view, physics is a reflection on the sacred idea of creating everything, so physics is a sacred cause. Newton believed that the "Bible" provided about human history There is no contradiction between his traditional interpretation and his own views on the mechanism of action of the universe. Darwin stated that he hopes that he will not be connected with Marx because he does not want to offend people who believe in traditional Christian concepts. This explains many great scientists. Harmonious attitude."

Comte admired Newton, the greatest scientist in modern times, and was a Christian who believed in God. British Newtonian researcher Rob Eliff (R.Iliffe) pointed out: "In the first half of the 20th century, people found a box of Newton's undisclosed manuscripts, including a large number of his notes, manuscripts and personal letters. Facts. In the above, Newton himself also has two sides. He not only published works such as "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" and "Optics", and summarized his scientific contributions, but also left more than 500,000 words of alchemy manuscripts and more than 100 The theological manuscripts of 10,000-character are non-scientific things." Professor Elif’s "Project Newton: "The Complete Works of Newton" Online Publishing Project Evaluation" pointed out: "Since the end of the 1980s, the academic circles have seen geometrical research on Newton’s “non-scientific” work. Growth, research by a group of Newtonian scholars, including the above-mentioned authors, shows that Newton is very devoted to the study of chronology, alchemy, and theology, and he firmly believes in the existence of prisca sapientia (prisca sapientia). Moreover, Newton’s so-called irrational pursuit was relatively common among scholars in the 17th century. Many scholars have gradually realized that Newton’s “non-scientific manuscripts” are of great significance for a complete and accurate understanding of Newton’s work and thoughts. Newton The project is a milestone in the history of Newtonian research. The Newtonian theological manuscripts published on the project website are no less than the writings of any theologian in history, both in terms of their sheer number and unique insights. Therefore, these theological manuscripts can be regarded as one of the most exciting documents published in the world's scientific thinking in the past 50 years."

Ironically, it is often not scientists who oppose religious traditions, but scientists. Hills emphasized: "Scientists are not attacking traditional systems everywhere. Many scientists have become agnostics on religious issues...Most scientists themselves do not explicitly oppose tradition;'scientism' is anti-traditional, therefore, It takes a critical attitude towards beliefs and things that have not been proven to be correct and valuable according to scientific standards; however,'scientism' is mainly the work of non-scientists, propagandists, philosophers, social scientists, and social reformers."

The French positivism scientific view pursued by Chen Duxiu and the New Culture Movement is quite different from the British empirical scientific view of Yan Fu in the late Qing Dynasty. Yan Fu holds the dualism of religious science. He distinguishes between "science" and "religion" by "knowledge" and "belief": "The thing to learn is to know, and the thing to teach is to believe. Only faith is strong, so he can die regardless of his interests. But the return of justice. This is not the result of teaching. In Yan Fu's view, morality, religion, and law are indispensable things for the integration of mankind into society. There is religion in society, which is due to the fact that some things in the world must not be knowledge. Able to know, so evolution is advancing without boundaries. Although the reach of human knowledge is getting wider and wider, there are more and more unknowable. Therefore, Xi Zhe said: "The starting point of religion is the end of science. "Spencer also said: "The subject of religion is outside the scope of knowledge." Yan Fu emphasized: "All religions in the world have no distinctions and cleanliness. Their authority starts from faith and cannot enter into knowledge; if one enters into knowledge, there is no religion. "From the late Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth Movement, the Chinese Enlightenment trend tended to be radicalized, and the dualism of science and religion by Yan Fu was replaced by the monism of science by Chen Duxiu. In the meantime, the empirical tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment and the rationalism of the French Enlightenment Doctrine traditions, complement each other and become interesting.

What is intriguing is that Comte, the father of positivism, did not abandon religion in the end. In his later years, he still advocated "Humanism" with positivism philosophy as the doctrine, reflecting his profound religious feelings. In the end, Chen Duxiu did not follow the religious sentiments of his French tutor, and he misunderstood Comte's doctrine. As He Lin said: "Comte’s statement has a kind of abuse that can easily be misunderstood, that is, people who lack cultural common sense will think that religion will be wiped out by the time when it comes to the scientific period of positive evidence. Philosophy will be replaced, and general theology, metaphysics, or metaphysics will be completely extinct... As everyone knows this is not Comte’s original intention. Comte also created his own positivist philosophy and created a humane religion, which shows that he does not fundamentally oppose philosophy and religion. ."

The differences between Chen Duxiu and Comte represent the profound differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Chinese culture with Confucianism as its backbone has humanism and intellectualism as its basic characteristics. From the old culture of "replacement of religion with morality" to the new culture of "replacement of religion with science", the non-religious orientations of humanism and rationalism are in the same line.