Do non christians think themselves righteous and why?

Question

I found that most of them do criticize christian as well as any other thing that goes against what they believe, but is it righteous at all?

Answer 1

our righteousness is but filthy rags in the presence of The Most High God

6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Answer 2

Of course I am not righteous. Noone is righteous.

Righteous = perfect. No human being can ever be perfect - including christians.

And goodness knows I have seen a lot of christians being very un-righteous, but still claiming to be perfect. Even right after they told a little white lie, or stole a pen from someone's desk, or ran a red light on the way home, or told their 3 year old that santa was real.

Answer 3

Righteous means morally upright; without guilt , so by this definition, not everyone is righteous believers or non-believers alike.

As an atheist, do I consider myself as "righteous"? For an atheist, I'm not really too concern about it. Whatever you do, people are too relative when it comes in judging people. I let history decide.

For me, entering Christian chat rooms or forums just to fling rudeness are not a work of respected atheists, or anti-theists. Pejorative will never answer issues nor will it be a good way to open discussions. But unfortunately, even Christians are guilty with the same rudeness.

Answer 4

Many non-Christians don't define the world the way Christians do. We do not split the world into the righteous and the wicked. Many of us do not believe in sin. The world is full of people and people are complicated. Nothing is righteous or wicked, it's too many things to be either. I try to be a good person, I try to raise my children to love and respect themselves and the divine in all things, I do the best I can in each situation with the information I have and sometimes I kick myself for choosing one path over another but usually, I just try to get by. Most people live this way, most people have no other intention than to make it through today and tomorrow in tact and maybe have some good times coming. Are these people wicked? Are they righteous? No, they are people. Is murder wicked? Not if someone has to kill to save themselves or their family. Is theft wicked? I don't believe a mom stealing to feed her children is wicked. It is easy to paint the world with a black and white brush but it is not correct, the world is full of brilliant color.
Do I think I'm righteous, no, I think I'm a good person and I try hard. Many people of all faiths criticize other faiths, Christians have a violent history of doing so, so do Muslims, and a few other choice faiths. We are asked to forgive the millions of people killed in Jesus' name over the last 2000 years, is it Christian to take offense and question the righteousness of those who choose not to condone and ignore that? Religions are a world-view, you can't define non-Christians by Christian terms, we just don't fit.

Answer 5

Christians also criticize non-christians. It's not the group as a whole that does that, but people who represent the group. I'm sure plenty of Christians, such as yourself, would prefer that these ignorant and rude Christians not be representative of your belief system. On the other hand, many non-Christians, be it atheists or other religious followers, would likely prefer that their fellow believers/non-believers wouldn't criticize anyone while representing the group. And you say most. That's inaccurate. Think about this. You probably get rude comments from a lot of non-Christians, but does that mean that every non-Christian on the site has responded and was rude. No, it's just the rude people that happen to bug all the others and post comments. It's like a magazine survery - it produces inaccurate statistics (for all the reasons they teach you in sociology and stats, which I won't get into)

Answer 6

Of course! Why should we not think ourselves righteous? We believe that atheism is the truth just as Christians and Muslims believe that their religion is the truth.

Most Christians also critisize other people that go against their doctrine. Does that make Christians less righteous?

Edit: Whoa! There are so many long and thoughtful responses! -goes to read them-

Answer 7

I don't know from which fact you base on to come to such conclusion.

However, as far as i know, a true spiritual practitioner from which ever religion don't criticize for the sake of criticizing, they base on logic and asking questions to refute the teaching which seem do not make sense, morever all these teaching have written hundred and thousand years ago, it may be misinterpret by ancestor, lost etc, who can really be so sure that every teaching we received is 'wrong-proof' and 'mistake proof' without asking and even challenging the teaching with tonnes of question to the believe when we are in doubt. Simply believing without any indepth study, research and contemplation is always not a wise method.

I come from a country which is a multi racial society, and we have 'multi religion' too, if we dont practice a great extent of patient, understanding and tolerant, we won't be living in such a peaceful country now.

Answer 8

Almost everybody "think themselves righteous."

If you have a belief, then you think it's righteous.

If you have a belief, then you automatically think that all contradictory beliefs are incorrect.

A righteous person would be someone who has certain beliefs, thinks that others are wrong, tries to understand others' beliefs, and doesn't criticize them.

Just because they criticize christians doesn't make them totally unrighteous.
They are probably only criticizing because they feel criticized by others.

Good luck, Peace.

Answer 9

Believers are all righteous, but not in and of themselves, only by the righteousness of Christ. Believers are commanded to "contend earnestly for the faith." So some may mistake one being dogmatic about a theological position as arrogant or unrighteous, but wrongly so. What you may be referring to is spiritual pride (or arrogance) and that can be a problem in Christianity, but they ought to be humble.

Answer 10

yes i would consider myself righteous.

and i do criticize that which is against my beliefs.

how do i consider this to be righteous?

very simple. my belief is that everyone and i mean everyone.
is created equal, and that no race religion sexual preferance, creed, or nation of origin. can make any man better than anyone else.

I believe that every man should be free to live his life as he sees fit so long as he does not violate the free will on any other human being.

I believe that people should not be discriminated against because of their race/religion, beliefs, sexual preferance, or lifestyle.

I believe in the inalienable rights of the U.S. constitution Life Liberty and the Persuit of Happiness.

and i believe that any man that violates these rights of all humans. forfiet's his claim to these rights.

my views are very simple. live and let live. be happy and allow others to be happy. If what i am doing in my house does not HURT anyone, then nobody has any business telling me what i can or can not do, or whom i may or may not marry (within the ages dictated by the government to be of consent and proper)


and that No religious Moral belief should be passed into any law.
there are many religions and they all have differant beliefs, they have the right to these beliefs, but do not have the right to Force them on everyone else

Answer 11

They seem to think they're more intelligent, they are constantly telling us how very smart they are. Of course, truly intelligent people don't usually have to run around bragging about it, so I'm guessing their IQ's aren't any higher than anyone elses, its just their ego's that are big. Righteous? That would be an individual call, not a group one, just as one can't call all christians righteous.

Nicholas H: You're so wrong, none of us deserve salvation, its a gift we're all unworthy of. Jesus was the only sinless person, yet He gave His life to give us the chance for salvation. We can't earn it, but anyone can get it just by asking.