Does false religion encourage self righteousness?

[josephback]

Sometimes I think there must be a mathematical relationship between religion and self righteousness. I was raised devout and I have a pharisaic bent at times. Is that just a personal problem or does religion actually encourage self righteousness?

Take for instance the notion of being “saved”. When I was an Evangelical it was common to divide people into “saved” and “unsaved” categories regardless of church affiliation. All in all it depended on subjective personal judgement to determine each case and who was most in need of evangelizing. Since I’ve turned Catholic I’ve realized how wrong this is. Outside of Church attendance and the sacraments, we don’t know who going to heaven. And even outside the Church we should treat everyone the same. Still I find it hard to overcome the old thinking in categories. In essence subjective judging is judging others against one’s own perceived righteousness. Somehow one always places themselves among the “saved” in such instances, unless they have a self esteem problem. So why does this happen? Does false religious thinking directly cause this, or is something else at work(like pride)? -Or is it both? Food for thought.

 

[mariafransisca1]

The Catholic church believes that outside of catholic church there is no salvation.

But that doesn’t mean that if you are a catholic you are certain to be saved.

Don’t believe other denominations, they can lead you to many errors. Believe in the catholic church’ teaching. Be zealous, jealous of your belief. Our God is a jealous God, in a loving way, that he doesn’t want us to worship other than Him. Jesus. In the catholic church. The Church he built, on the rock, St. Peter, the first pope.