Sorry, I don’t know enough about Chinese culture to answer. But I’d guess that either they do have weird beliefs (that I’m not familiar with so I can’t name them), or they don’t and honoring ancestors is an isolated thing they do as a ritual. (The answer may be different for different people, of course.)
Insofar as anyone expects saints to perform the function of demigods and intervene causally with miracles on behalf of the person praying, yes, it is “profoundly weird” magical thinking.
Why do you ask a site full of atheists if they think religion is irrational?
Sorry, I don’t know enough about Chinese culture to answer. But I’d guess that either they do have weird beliefs (that I’m not familiar with so I can’t name them), or they don’t and honoring ancestors is an isolated thing they do as a ritual. (The answer may be different for different people, of course.)
Speaking of “profoundly weird” things, does the veneration of saints in Catholicism qualify? :-)
Insofar as anyone expects saints to perform the function of demigods and intervene causally with miracles on behalf of the person praying, yes, it is “profoundly weird” magical thinking.
Why do you ask a site full of atheists if they think religion is irrational?
“Irrational” and “weird” are quite different adjectives.