What is self righteousness? And are you when it comes to your beliefs vs. someone else's beliefs?

Answer 1

Self-righteousness is the sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant display of certainty when true certainty is unattainable. A self-righteous person is likely to ignore or discount life's ambiguities, tending instead toward a "black-or-white" dualism.

The presence of self-righteousness suggests a core insecurity that causes the person to defend themselves against assaults (real or imagined). These defenses may take the form of either outright attacks against those who hold contrary beliefs or separation from others who might call their beliefs into question. Alternatively, self-righteously (i.e., defensively) trying to "convert" others to your way of thinking leads to one-way conversations directed almost entirely toward the agenda of self-righteous person.

I'm certain that there are moments during which my less secure beliefs trigger my own self-righteousness. This is probably common among us all. But then again, so is body odor, and most of us try to keep that stink under control.

Answer 2

"convinced of one's own righteousness especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others : narrow-mindedly moralistic"

http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=self-righteousness

By this definition, "moralistic" would imply that the beliefs apply not only to the self, but also to the other and that the other "should" be like you.

This strikes me as a common part of religious belief e.g. "my concept of god is "right", because X book says so: period".

Science, on the other hand, invites each person to do their own experiments, to question everything, to never be 100% sure of being correct about anything, and to always keep an open mind.

This means:

1) you cannot be a self-righteous scientist, but you can claim to be a scientist, of course, even when you are not.

2) you can be a self-righteous religious believer, and

3) many religions explicitly require this attitude else you are not a "true believer".

Answer 3

Yes. Self-righteousness is the belief that you are right with dead certainty, and the other person is wrong, but specifically with the added smugness of thinking you will at some point be reqrded for your rightness, while the other person suffers dire consequences.

Religeous types are EXTREMELY prone to this, as each one thinks God favours them, and every one else will be damned.

None of them seems to appreciate that there are NO fundamental differences in their religeons, and that for all practical purposes, they may as well be the same thing, as they are all worshipping the same god anyway.

So essentially it is this perverse, sanctimonious, self-serving fantasy that you and only you can be correct that has in fact led to ALL the major, and minor conflicts our world has ever seen.

Proof that God does in fact have a sense of humour...

Answer 4

Oh, this is pride of the heart, beloved!—

See this example from the scriptures, "Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: 'God, I thank You that I'm not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.' "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, 'God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!' I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14).

let me urge upon all the lesson conveyed in this parable. It is a picture of a very large portion of professing Christians. Some, to be sure, are called by that name—but they never think at all about Christ or their own souls—it would make no difference to them if all the Bibles in the world were burned today—and of course they are going straight to destruction.

But all others, rich or poor (there is no distinction), are either Pharisees or tax collectors. There is no half-way house: they either trust to themselves wholly—or in part, which is much the same. Or else they are always self-condemned and have no confidence in anything they can do for justification.

You cannot search your heart too diligently, for this self-righteousness is the subtlest enemy of all. Beware of thinking, as the devil would have you, that the parable is a very good one for everybody else

Answer 5

Self Righteous? I do not believe I am because I believe that people have to choose how they will live and think for themselves. I do have strong opinions on things, and I will state my beliefs forcefully. I don't really expect people to convert to my way of thinking unless they agree, or find some truth in what I am saying. When I state my beliefs I try to be as factual as I can on matters, but often time there is no black and white answer, it is often a matter of perception. In these cases all people seem self righteous because they believe what they are saying. In short the only way I think you are self righteous is if you insist that people agree with you no matter what, or preach concepts which you yourself are unwilling to follow.

Answer 6

I believe when someone is being "self-righteous" they are interpreting their beliefs to not only being superior to other's beliefs, but go beyound that to place themselves above others and only their interpretation of "the way" (whatever it might be) is correct. They usually see that their actions are always justified no matter what pain they are doing regardless of the harm to others with no self-acessment of one's self is going on (or very limited which such things as "I believe" therefore I must be right).

Now this can apply to groups as well as to individual people. Usually it is when groups choose to lie or misrepresent things then they are acting in a self-righteous manner.

The key to understanding any self-righteous behavior to to ask is this group or person acting in a way they must lie or misrepresent what they are saying in order to justify their cause - it is then they have moved to a path of "self-righteousness" and not a path of enlightenment - imho.

For what would be a more objective definition of the word check out humanityuest.com's site (see: http://humanityquest.com/topic/Index.asp?theme1=self-righteousness ) for more info. On there you can find links to the definition of the word from various sources.

Answer 7

Self-righteousness is a conviction that one is so pious and sin free that they have the right to judge others. For the second part of your question, no, I don't think that I am self-righteous. My belief is that I've got all I can do to worry about my soul, you worry about yours whatever way you want.

Answer 8

What makes us different from other animal species is that we have free will, we can choose what to believe even in a controlling society, people have always kept his own beliefs.

A self-righteous person CAN believe he or she is right, I, in the other hand CAN ignore that person's opinion. I have FREE WILL. We do not have to take the self righteousness of anybody, I guess letting it be, not allowing it to bother your beliefs is all we can do. Freedom of the human spirit and mind, that is what matters.

Answer 9

Self Righteousness means to correct yourself with the message. I really did not try to shove my beliefs into other peoples beliefs.

Answer 10

Self righteousness is a phony ego trip. And I believe in live and let live. Everyone has a right to their own choices, unless it is harmful to me, and people are so diversified in their lives, and their beliefs, it makes for interesting friends.