Confucius said: "You cannot be a gentleman if you don't know destiny." Don't Confucians not believe in ghosts and gods? Do you only believe in heaven but not ghosts and gods?

No. The question you asked is a good one, and it is exactly what many people do not understand about Confucius’ thought.

First of all, the "fate" mentioned by Confucius is the destiny of heaven, not the "fate" mentioned in our daily superstition (which is different from the fate mentioned by fortune telling and fortune telling). The more a person experiences the world, the more he will find that there are a lot of uncertain factors in a person's success or that something happens as expected. Even if you have all the elements for success, you may not be able to succeed. This can be well corroborated by current probability theory. Confucius wanted to solve exactly this problem: what should a person do when he still fails to achieve the expected goal despite trying everything possible? At this time, people must learn to "do their best in human affairs and know the destiny", and cannot be overly eager to achieve the expected goals, otherwise they will harm others and themselves. And just as the Buddhists say to get rid of obsessions, you must learn to give up when it is time to give up, and do not blame God or others. The "mandate of destiny" mentioned by Confucius refers to things that cannot be controlled by human beings in the development process of things. That is what the Yi Jing calls "the way of heaven", what Taoism calls "the way", and Buddhism calls "karma" (note that it is not marriage).

Secondly, Confucianism (at least Confucius) never said "do not believe in ghosts and gods", this should be noted. There is no statement in the Analects that Confucius did not believe in ghosts and gods. Note that Confucianism does not talk about ghosts and gods, that is, it avoids talking about ghosts and gods. Zi Buyu: strange, powerful, chaotic, divine. Several times when his disciples asked about ghosts and gods, Confucius replied, "Respect ghosts and gods and stay away from them", "If you don't know life, how can you know death" and so on. Here is a question: Why did Confucius avoid talking about ghosts and gods? This is where Confucius was brilliant. If there are no ghosts and gods, then people will no longer fear their ancestors. Failure to respect their ancestors will inevitably lead to people not being filial and respectful enough (just laugh now). People who are not filial and respectful will not be virtuous (Zixia once pointed out Filial piety and brotherhood are the foundation of benevolence), the morality expected by Confucianism will be difficult to achieve. And if there are ghosts and gods, people will waste manpower and material resources on worshiping ghosts and gods, and then become ignorant. Therefore, Confucius could only avoid talking about it. Confucius himself actually attached great importance to sacrifice (what Confucius feared: fasting, war, and illness), but he was not superstitious. This is a bit contradictory, but this is exactly the problem of "one and two, two and one".