Entry 10: Church, anyone?

I have been in contact with many different religion's and practices before. I have been an atheist all my life but it seems like my friends aren't. First of all a lot of my friends back in Shanghai are Christians. They go to a "retreat" every year, similar to camp but about God. They also have something called KG (know God) every few weeks and they go to church every Sunday. I have never been to their "retreats" before but I did go to one of their KG meetings. It was a place where they chatted about what was happening in their lives and relating it to the bible. It was really confusing for me because I've never read the bible before, and probably never will. I have never been to church, but I have been to temples. Buddhist and Taoist temples look pretty similar to me and the things they do there also look the same. I had a friend's mother who was a devote Buddhist. I have seen her pray time I go to my friends house. When I say pray I don't mean talking to God with your hands held together, but I mean nailing down and bowing to a statue. I was pretty surprised the first time I saw my friend's mother do that but I got use to it over the years. Compared to the puritans none of them seem to be ass strict. however each one believes in their God as being the almighty.  Usually when I see these things I don't react much different I just see it as a way for them to have a sense of safety or support.