I agree with you. Same thing with some lapsed Catholics I know. Thanks to their upbringing (and maybe some things they'd rather not acknowledge), their actions would qualify them as near-exemplars of Christianity, except for the whole not going to church and mouthing off about the pope/priests/church stuff.
“I agree with you.”
You agree together on the myth of human goodness. The truth is, mankind is totally depraved.
Rom 3:10-20 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (13) Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes. (19) Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (20) Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
There isn’t anyone who is good, neither Jew nor Greek. To hope to be saved by your works is the same thing as saying, from the biblical sense, that you intend to die by your inability to achieve the perfection required by God.
Mat_5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
This perfection doesn’t just refer to not sinning anymore, but also that all your “good” works are perfect “as your Father in heaven is perfect.” But all your righteousness, in the sight of God, is nothing but foulness.
Isa_64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
The bottom line is that the only one who is actually good... is God Himself.
Mar_10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
Therefore salvation is by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. In fact, faith is itself the gift of God, for no one can believe who is not chosen by God.