I disagree. I have met lots of people who claim to be part of a religion but they sure don’t act like it, many people wear religion just as a label. In my opinion, I don’t think that God is going to ask me what my “religion” was and I’m pretty sure He will already know what defines my beliefs.
I also think you may have misunderstood part of what I said. What I mean is that I believe that God sees us first as people first, everything else comes second. Who are we benieth all of the labels? Strip away the titles we wear in front of other people like catholic, boss, nurse, dr., lawyer, mr., mrs, land owner, millionair, tv star, ect. ect. and we will be like we are naked.
Does God really use these labels to see who we say we are or does He see right through them all?
A religion is not something you are part of, but the way in which you relate to the idea of God. Atheism is as much a religion as Catholicism.
Certainly belonging to a religious society (such as the Catholic Church) does not automatically imply that one is a good Christian, or even a believer at all - just like belonging to a secular or atheist community does not automatically imply that someone does not believe in God or is a moral relativist.
How we understand God is our religion. It so happens that Christianity - especially as preserved for two thousand years in the apostolic Church - has the most reasonable and authoritative understanding of God’s nature and will for man (regardless of whether or not one is knowledgeable enough on the Deposit of Faith and on the history of civilization to agree with this).
God will see this, and will judge accordingly.
If someone knows that God the Son took flesh to redeem fallen mankind and asked everyone to forgive those who offend us and help those in need, and yet he refuses to do so, he will have to respond for his choice to not do God’s will as it was revealed to him.
If someone does not believe there is a God at all, and thinks the point of life is to make as much money as possible in order to get drunk, buy expensive drugs, and have as much sex as possible, given that the only way of discernment for him is “it is right if it feels right”, God will be lenient on him, for there is a certain degree of blindness and ignorance in his actions due to his ignorance of God’s nature and will.
If someone belongs to a fundamentalist religious sect that allows violence and even promotes it as God’s will, God will have to take that into consideration (just like Christ told the Apostles: “
The time is coming when those who kill you will think that they are doing a service to God”).
God will definitely look at religion to begin with, because it defines who we are, how we act, how we relate to our neighbor, how we plan our existence, how we assign value to things and people in life, what we are willing to live for, what we are willing to suffer and die for.
