You've got to love a religion survey - especially when it comes from China.

A whole flurry of interest today in the recent poll showing an upsurge of believers in modern China. Here are two in the NY Times and the Washington Post.

Post quotes the researchers at length, who have a sober and socialist take on the revivalist spirit:

More Chinese feel unstable and harassed by the rootless lives they lead now," Liu Zhongyu, a philosophy professor who helped organize the survey, said in a telephone interview.

"The standards of morality are declining," Liu told Oriental Outlook magazine, which reported the survey results. "People don't trust each other anymore. They are looking for something to anchor their lives in.

And the official response from the government:

President Hu Jintao, reacting to such sentiments, repeatedly has cited a need to reemphasize human values in China, suggesting they should be part of the "socialism with Chinese characteristics" that is the ruling Communist Party's official dogma. He has made creation of "a socialist harmonious society" a watchword of his administration. Last year, he issued a list of eight virtues and eight vices as guidance for officials and ordinary people as they go about their business in this fast-changing country.

I love this. You can definitely see the masses swaying - ancient wisdom traditions, with holidays, cosmologies, communities? Or a government-issued list of virtues you can clip and save in your new velcro wallet. Ermmm... no contest, Bob. Secularism takes a hit.

There's a great argument to be made here, if anyone is brave enough to make it. Both China and Russia, the Communist giants, experinced the same thing when the freedom of religion was revived. There was a huge resurgence back to the church. The numbers in Russia are similarly striking - generations raised without any spiritual beliefs return by droves, not just to the traditional church but to mystical, evangelical and fringe religions.

But was it an innate craving for religion, or the result of economics? Compare this to Europe, where a milder form of socialism and steady economic growth have seen the standard of living grow and religious observance fall over the last few decades. If China wants a secular nation, I say they try France's 30 hour workweek.

As far as the Christian numbers here - double what they were expecting, at 40 million - the marked uptick in conversions should come as no surprise. Western missionaries are still illegal in China, but there has been a constant flow of support for China's Christians flowing from west to east. A number of new Bible translations, a focus on China's overlooked minority groups, like the Black Yi and the Flowery Miao, and a steady supply of Chinese Bibles have made a big dent in Soviet objectivism.

As the sleeping giant stirs in the next century, I wonder if the growth of western religion will be a good thing or a bad thing. Will China become another battlefield of Islam and Christianity? Whose side will China finally be on?

And where are the numbers for the Falun Gong? I'll bet if you marked that oval, you got to meet the pollsters personally...