Confucian Analects

                    I think that religion includes a deity and a dimension of faith. The Chinese Classics--Volume 1: Confucian Analects has neither, therefore I do not think it is a religion. This reading implies and supports the idea people are born good. It starts off with "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?"(Book 1, Ch. 1) that implies that a person is born good with the desire to learn. It is through the way the analects advise and instruct people that I can infer that the reading supports the idea that people are born good. Later on in book one chapter eight, it tells you what to do and not what to refrain from:
          "2. Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
          3. Have no friends not equal to yourself.
          4. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."
This supports the idea that people are born good and can do these things to maintain the goodness. If the reading were to support the idea that people were born bad, it would state what to refrain from, not what to do. If the reading were to support the idea that people were born neutral, it would state more about the choice of becoming good versus bad. In book two chapter fourteen assumes a person is born good and has the natural ability "[t]o see what is right". Also in book four chapter ten, "what is right [the superior man] will follow". This implies that he knows what is right internally, which means he was born that way, good.