[loup-vaillant]

> Why would going to church be evidence that they are good people?

I've heard from a Skepticon talk that some studies show that it is. They give more to charity, participate more in their communities, things like that.

At the very least, going to Church is most probably evidence that one is either striving to be a good person or already think of themselves as good persons. That last hypothesis would explain how they can sleep at night.

> Take that a step farther. When you already believe yourself to be a worthless sinner who has a blank check of forgiveness from Jesus, what incentive do you have to not act like a worthless sinner?

Aren't you supposed to make amends first? At the very least, show some contrition, and promise you won't do it again?

[brianwawok]

According to Sola Fide[0], faith is the only thing that matters for going to the "good place" or the "bad place". So no, you are not supposed to make amends and promise not to do it again to go to the "good place".

Now to not strawman the argument, it is more complex than that. The wiki link does an OK job explaining some of it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_fide

[Natanael_L]

I find that a bit surprising;

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-26...

[brianwawok]

Well, most of the ~900 million protestants in the world agree with some version of it. Obviously it is a slightly more complex topic.

[reitanqild]

The Bible is very clear about forgiveness by faith alone but also that whoever pledges faith to Christ is supposed to stop sinning.

This is mentioned again and again and again by Jesus and the apostles and it is a mystery how anyone can get away with saying anything else.