“Authority..........it all comes down to authority.”
Authority is all well and good, but there’s quite a difference between the standard appeal to historical authorities, and claiming an infallible, eternal, and unquestionable authority. To claim that kind of extraordinary authority, I think you need extraordinary evidence to support the claim.
Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses claim a similar extraordinary authority, and Catholics rightly hold them to this extraordinary standard and find them wanting. Protestants likewise find the Catholic claims wanting.
It’s one thing to make the argument that such an authority is necessary, but it’s another matter entirely to establish that the Pope or the Catholic Church has a rightful claim to such authority.
By this test we can know political truth, because the results of Marxism/Socialism/Leftism are always bad no matter who is in charge.
The same test can be applied to learn religious truth, but the results are often mixed here.
Then it becomes a question of determining if the bad result was a product of bad theology or, as is usually the case, the result of a bad or misguided person twisting said theology for their own nefarious purposes.
Any religion more than a few years old has ample examples.
And, even though I was raised Protestant and have real problems with certain Catholic theology, I find the extreme fundamentalist view that we will be assigned to heaven or hell entirely based on what we believe and not how we perform to be ludicrous.
For example, I can't see Mother Teresa approaching the pearly gates and being told by St. Peter to check into the other place because the doctrine of transubstantiation is wrong because the sacrament is only symbolic, not literal.
Nor can I see St. Peter admitting some murdering scumbag into heaven because at one time in his life, he signed the acceptance of Jesus Christ statement in the back of a Gideon New Testament and sincerely meant it.
And for holding above belief, some of the fundies have already consigned my soul to hell.