Confucianism: The insistence that human beings are perfectible through personal and communal endeavor. The main religious belief of China looks back to Confucius (the anglicized form of Kunk Fu-tzu, or Kung the Master) about 1000 years after Moses. Confucianism is an optimistic humanism that assumes man is basically good, being opposed to the biblical doctrine that man is sinful by birth, inclination, and practice. Due to this fatal flaw, there is thought to be no need of a Savior. Confucian teachings include filial piety (devotion of younger to elder family members), benevolence, loyalty to one’s true nature, sincerity and graciousness. It is not really a religion, since there is no thought of God or an afterlife. While the ethical standards are commendable, since there is no consideration of the supernatural, man is left to his own resources, leaving him as “having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Pray for one-sixth of the world’s population still in this state.