I think Venerable Shravasti Dhammika gave a very good
answer...
No Buddhist who understands the Buddha's teaching thinks that other
religions are wrong. No one who, has made a genuine effort to
examine other religions with an open mind could think like that
either. The first thing you notice when you study the different
religions is just how much they have in common. All religions
acknowledge that man's present state is unsatisfactory. All believe
that a change of attitude and behaviours is needed if man's
situation is to improve. All teach an ethics that includes love,
kindness, patience, generosity and social responsibility and all
accept the existence of some form of Absolute. They use different
languages, different names and different symbols to describe and
explain these things; and it is only when they narrowmindedly
cling to their one way of seeing things that religious intolerance,
pride and selfrighteousness arise.
Example
Imagine an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Chinese and an Indonesian all
looking at a cup. The Englishman says, "That's a cup". The Frenchman answers, "No
it's not. It's a tasse". The
Chinese comments, You're both wrong. It's a pet". And the Indonesian laughs at the
others and says "What fools you are. It's a cawan." The Englishman gets a
dictionary and shows it to the others saying, "I can prove that it
is a cup. My dictionary says so". "Then your dictionary is wrong",
says the Frenchman "because my dictionary clearly says it is a
tasse". The Chinese scoffs at them. "My dictionary is thousands of
years older than yours, so my dictionary must be right. And
besides, more people speak Chinese than any other language, so it
must be a pet". While they are squabbling and arguing with each
other, a Buddhist comes up and drinks from the cup. After
he has drunk, he says to the others, "Whether you call it a cup, a tasse, a pet or a
cawan, the purpose of the cup is to be used. Stop arguing and
drink, stop squabbling and refresh your thirst".
This is the Buddhist attitude to other
religions.
