The fact that others are in error does not necessitate that everyone is in error. There is an optimal reality which we all should be trying to define.
For Christians, that optimal reality is found in Christ through Scripture and is spiritually discerned.
It is real and present and gives evidence of itself by the good fruit it produces.
Paul's confidence was not misplaced nor gnostic. It was tangible because his mind had been quickened by the Holy Spirit to perceive it.
Some get it; some don't.
or that we are right.
There is an optimal reality which we all should be trying to define
Yes, and that optimal reality may be only theoretical.
You are trying to make that which is relative (in your opinion) into something absolute (optimal). I share your belief that Christ gives us the optimal faith, but a Jew or a Muslism or a Hindu or whatever will tell you that his faith is, citing the same reasons you do.
Bottom line is, we cannot apply that which suits us to everyone equally, even though we can't imagine why they would not see it our way. But making yourself righteous based on your own percpetions is, for the lack of a better term, self-righteousness.
And when it comes to self-rigtheousness, some Christians are no different than any other group of the self-righteous.
Rather than arguing and passing judgments whose "daddy' is stronger, or "optimal," or passing judgments who is or isn't, we should concentrate on producing those fruits you are talking about, and let God's will be done.
Paul's confidence was not misplaced nor gnostic. It was tangible because his mind had been quickened by the Holy Spirit to perceive it
His words speak otherwise. Whether his confidence was misplaced or whether some of his teaching had a tinge of Gnosticism is not what his purpose was.
And you have no proof whatsoever that his mind was quickened by the Holy Spirit to perceive. It's one of those empty "I say so" dictates presented as a matter of "fact."