 Asian Americans are becoming less and less religious on paper, so let's talk about why yeah We got to talk about this new viral Pew research study that has a bunch of infographics a bunch of charts the viral article is titled rising number of Asian Americans report having no religion and man This is a big topic because Andrew Asian Americans were typically Christian and they were Buddhist, but both those religions have gone down not too many other religions have really Sourged uh surged up except religiously unaffiliated. Oh, all right So we're gonna go into the comments section We're gonna go into some reasons why I think that might be and then also our takeaways at the end Please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the hot pot boys I know that we're talking about religion here. It's a touchy subject. It's personal to a lot of people again You know, we've never we're not never talked about it in a disrespectful way and we're just we're just trying to be intellectually curious here Okay, we're talking about the study guys and we're also talking about small assos that you can pre-order at small assas calm from Sir Chuan to Sicily Andrew what are your quick thoughts about this because I guess you could also say that it's just a larger trend in America in general to be more religiously unaffiliated and Asians are just fitting it filly fitting into that trend But the Pew research study also said that of all the groups in America Asians were the least likely to say that religion was important to their life. Yeah, okay Well, I mean, I guess that makes sense often times obviously as we know There's a number of reasons for that and these are just reasons that I think in my head So you guys let me know um, I think a lot of Asian immigrants when they come to America They join churches for community and social aspects more than they do Spiritual aspects so once they kind of graduate from that church or go to that church for some odd years Maybe they don't go back to church, right? Also. I think Yeah, maybe there's a need a less of a need for those like community spaces because there's more f no burbs or more enclaves or more Plaza is right. Also, obviously if you're a recent immigrant from China China is predominantly a non religious country So it's less likely that you're gonna be religious and even if you go to a church for social aspects You are less likely to probably stay at that church a lot of the early Chinese immigrants I can speak on Chinese. I believe we're Taiwanese and Hong Kong knees So they generally leaned it more into being Christian a lot of the churches that I knew about that were Chinese base We're either ran by Taiwanese or Hong Kong more Western exposure. Yeah, um, also a lot of these Asian churches Let's be honest are ran by the older generation and that doesn't make it more appealing Like if you grew up with strict Asian parents And then you went to church and you had more strict Asian parents running the church And then you went to Chinese school on Saturdays For more strict Asian parents, that's some stuff that you would probably not want to lean back into and I've never even heard of a Like a modern temple. I'm not saying there's none, but like The Buddhist temples are pretty old-school. Yeah, that's why any modern church right now That is gaining any traction at all like has like different delivery and knows how to speak to the people of the generation and things like that and Yeah, I mean generally the general movement of all Americans leaning away from church and religion a little bit So I think the graph would look similar for the average American But I guess perhaps more for Asians. Yeah, I would say that Asians maybe feel less of a need to declare some sort of I guess like in a weird way to say it like Abrahamic affiliation because we're just not from the West Yeah, Eastern hemisphere. So it's not like we feel like we gotta pick a squad Also, if you feel like that you need religion to like save your soul from like sins of your past I mean generally a lot of a lot of Asian Americans like they might not feel that strongly So they might not need their like soul to be saved didn't send that much. So you didn't need that much Yeah, but yeah, I guess so but Andrew it actually breaks down per subgroup Obviously like many things do and 56% of Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans were not affiliated with any religion That was the highest amongst these subgroups of Asians Three-quarters of Filipino Americans are Christian mostly Catholic 59% of Korean Americans are Christian mostly Protestant Indian Americans were far more likely than any other large Asian origin groups to be Hindu and Vietnamese Americans were the largest of any group to identify as Buddhist. Yo Hey, Filipinos man. They known as the warmest and jolliest Asians and they're the most Christian I don't know if there's a correlation Anyways, let's get into the comment section that we'll get into our takeaways. Somebody said this is from a white guy I think many of them just don't state that Buddhism is their religion because they treat it like it's just part of their culture And somebody said I'm half Asian my Asian relatives aren't conscious or explicit about the religion, but they are practically Buddhist This is an interesting thing Andrew, you know when something's a part of a culture for so long It gets interwoven It's also arguable that in a Western sense Buddhism is not really a religion but more of a philosophy about life How much Taoism Confucianism Buddhism is just inherent to the Asian experience without being explicit Overmind, you know, it's more subconscious. Right, right, right Is it is it just I mean I have friends who have like Buddha shrines in their houses But they're like you wouldn't even have a conversation with them about being Buddhist at all like, you know It doesn't mean that they are also I know people who like they wear maybe like the Buddhist Jade even with the cross like they feel they feel like it It makes sense and you know, I think depending on the sect of Buddhism because there are a lot of different types Then yes, it is very compatible And it's not really seen as another religion or another like I guess deity or like did you know actually Andrew in the Major East Asian languages or a lot of Asian languages in general. I had to look this up There's no real direct translation for the Western concept of a religion There's just no direct word for it because I just think that people in the East view things very differently than the West Yeah, the histories are different. I mean Somebody said living in Asia for many years I find that Asians have religion in them good as part of their being somebody said yes Abrahamic religions tend to War with each other a lot even though they are so similar I will say this in the East It's a little bit more about like harmony like yin and yang and this is like over simplification But definitely I noticed in the West it's more about like good and evil and when the evil comes up The good people got to come down and kill the evil people even though killings bad So you got to put some evil on the evil people, but it did that makes it okay. I don't know Yeah, that's how it's translated. That's how it seems. Yeah, that's how that's how it is executed somebody said I don't know man. The Asians sure believe in something they believe in the white man, especially the Asian women And that turned into a crazy thread somebody said a sure sign of intelligence Asians They have better math and science scores a.k.a critical thinking which would lead you to not be religious Mmm, of course, um, Andrew There is a big movement, especially would you say within the intellectual like was a literati and stuff like that to be anti Religious in the West, right? I mean overall there is like less churches than there was 40 years ago 100% you know, so I think that that is something that is ongoing. Yeah, I mean there is a a Some people would say like an anti-religion movement, you know, right Richard Dawkins This person said there are older white person and they work in the Boston area She said she noticed that the older Vietnamese people she works with are very devout Catholics or Buddhists The Filipinos were very devout Catholics as well as many Hispanics How much do you think it varies between the grandparents the parents and the kids because it sure seems like the kids are Religiously unaffiliated the parents are 50-50, but if the grandparents were into a religion, they're about it. Yeah I mean it seems like the More generations you are in America. I guess as an Asian you become less religious I guess I would say yeah somebody said to Asians They are going to church for the social aspect not the spiritual aspect. That's to your previous point Somebody said Buddhism Hinduism Taoism are the best and somebody said Buddhism is the best because it's all about karma You do good things you get good things happening you do bad things you have bad things happen to you You can't just pray for forgiveness. It's more based on what you did. Mmm. That's interesting Um, oh back to the previous point Andrew about people going for community and not the spiritual aspect Do you think of 2023? It's much easier through the internet in a larger immigrant base to have community without the church Yeah, I think a lot of Asians are finding comfort in a community Outside of church. So maybe they're replacing that with going to church. So they're going to church less and instead they have their basketball league or Online community. I do think Asians are heavily online. So maybe that is where they find their community. So really You know at a time when immigrants they just needed to see each other because you know how like a lot of churches are like Segregated essentially by ethnicity or tribe or background, right? So you would need to go to that church to just even meet and see other people of that Saturday and Sunday the most segregated the Saturday night and Sunday morning are the most segregated days of the What does that say man when the most segregated days are the one day you're being the most sinful and the other day You're trying to be a saint Ultimately Andrew, what are your takeaways? You have any quick thoughts like it seems like this is a macro trend But Asians particularly Not on you know particularly like feel comfortable being like oh, yeah, you know, it is not that important to me Yeah, I mean I think that if you grew up at church and then you decide later on that you don't need it You know, that's your own personal opinion, of course And I think that but I do think that actually attending a church, especially for young kids at some point is somewhat helpful Yeah I think generally those environments are designed to be positive obviously they're still ran by humans humans can make mistakes But as is anything, you know like a school or a university, but like yeah, I mean I feel like that I Think that if you don't need it and you feel good about your life and you're good with yourself Then I guess so be it, you know, yeah, I guess maybe it's just speaking on how Asians got comfortable in America. Yeah Yeah, that's very interesting. Anyway guys, let us know what you think in the comment section below Keep it civil we encourage debate. Is this just an overall trend for everybody? Is it particularly strong for Asians? We popped up some of the charts We couldn't even get to everything because there were so many micro stats and infographics Let us know what you think until next time we the hop-hop boys. We out. Peace