Atheistic communists regard religion as an opiate that lulls people to sleep and impedes humankind's progress. Therefore, they feel that religion must be eliminated.

     The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre sees human life as full of sorrow and hopelessness, without any reason or meaning. He finds life fragmented and awash with frailty, worry, and heartbreak. For him humanity lives in doubt,, without a sense of direction. Why is man born? What is his destiny? What is he to do with other men and women, with life? Questions like these can give us headaches. Indeed, if everything ends with humanity, then we would have to agree that human existence is very difficult to understand, and that those who seek truth will find only meaninglessness.

     Albert Camus, another French writer, also finds life meaningless. He believes that one must live fully, be active; for only activity can make existence real for the individual.

     the Chinese philosopher Chuang'tzu considers life nothing but a dream. For him, a person's life on this earth is like a fleeting glimpse of a sunbeam cast through a narrow window. Life and death are, respectively, the primordial entry and exit for all things, not just man and beast. One change occasions a birth; another, a death. There is no need to worry or be sad. To worry or be sad about life and death is to fight against one's destiny and show one's ignorance.

     People typically fear the unknown, though it might bring some happiness. Once a beautiful young lady living in the country of Li had to marry the king of T'sin. She wept bitterly when she left her home, but when she became queen she grew very happy and regretted that she had cried so much. Likewise, a person who has just died may regret having wishes to live on. Chuang'tzu concludes that peoples' unhappiness is caused by their own actions -- actions driven by insatiable desires. To nip all desire at the bud is to make action unnecessary, to eliminate worry and sorrow, to enjoy perpetual peace of mind and bodily rest, to live a spiritual life, and to follow the Way of heaven and earth. Death is a natural fact of life. We should not waste our time trying to change what is natural.

     The Vietnamese poet Nguyen Cong Tru certainly agrees with this view of life:

Victory or defeat is merely given;
Praise or blame, like a breeze.
Enjoy wine, women, and song -- but not strife.
Never mind buddhas or gods; do take your ease.

     Confucius, on the other hand, lays down a different law for us to follow: Nurture your innate knowledge of right and wrong, guard your conscience, nourish your mind, and cultivate your character in order to serve humankind.

     The French moralist La Rochefoucauld believes that selfishness is the driving force of human behavior: "Virtues join with self-interest as the rivers join the sea." For La Rochefoucauld, there are no such things as sacred motherly love, shining altruism, and loving humility; all is pure egoism masked by a pleasant exterior.

     These philosophical views on the human condition are quite confusing and even tiresome to us. On the subject of religion, however, we may all agree on one thing: All religions are good -- that is, they all teach people to do good, and none commands us to deceive or cimmit crimes. For example, I remember the fork Finom, about 24 km (15 miles) south of Dalat. On the right of this fork, statues of Jesus and Buddha shared a large altar. A big sign above the gate read, "Jesus and Buddha are One." The founder of this religious sect was a lady who, seeing that Catholic priests were called "fathers," decided to call herself "Lady Father." Consequently, people in the area referred to her religion as "Lady-Fatherism."

     I have also read a few books written by the Buddhist monk Suzuki, Emperor Hirohito's personal chaplain. Suzuki demonstrates that many things Jesus said concord with the teachings of Buddha, and that there are many thoughts and viewpoints common to Christianity and Huddhism. Other people compare the emblems used by the two religions, namely, the cross () and the swastika (), finding them similar. Thus it seems that all religions come from the same root, or to provide an analogy, that "all roads lead to Rome."

     In the same vein, one of my acquaintances is a Buddhist monk. Occasionally I have the pleasure of serving as his interpreter when he goes to see his physician. One day I picked him up to drive him to the doctor's office. He climbed in the car and said, "My nephews are somewhat bothered by my befriending you. They ask how a Buddhist monk like me could be the friend of a Protestant minister." I asked how he answered them. He smiled and said: "I told them that I am a Buddhist monk and that you are a Protestant monk. Since we are both 'monks', it is logical for us to be friends." What an apt reply!

     Then there is the sect that worships Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Kuan Ti, Tran Hung Dao, and others as deities, hoping to be a universal religion. Anybody can join the sect. Whomever one worships, that being can be found on the altar. Perhaps this is a sure path to salvation: If one god does not save you, another might! The sect founder certainly had the good sense to combine a universal appeal with some sort of guarantee. This idea is not new, however. People in Athens worshipped all gods, too, and to make sure that they had included everybody, they had an altar for an unknown god (Acts 17:23).

     All religions are equally good if by "good" we mean that they help make good people out of us. That we agree on. But if that is their sole purpose, then religions might be superfluous. Every child starts out with an innocent, clean past; every parent wants to bring that child up to be a good person. In most countries morals are taught to grade-school children, and good manners and civic duties to high-school students. When they grow up these young people will be governed by the laws of their lands and the behavior codes of their societies. Religions do not provide the only means of teaching men and women how to be "good."

     Hence we need to calmly re-examine the question of whether all gods should be worshipped. However, since we cannot treat all faiths in this pamphlet, let us confine ourselves to two major religions. In the next few pages I shall try to show the dissimilarities between Buddhism and Christianity, focusing on the difference between the Buddhist concept of emancipation and the Christian concept of salvation. Gautama Buddha told his followers: "Just as water in the ocean has only one flavor, saltiness, so my teachings have only one flavor, emancipation." Jesus told his disciples: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10).