As someone who once believed and now doesn't, I can honestly say that pride does not enter into the equation at all. In fact, to accept the eventuality that your life-long hopes are no longer realistic is the exact opposite of pride. It is resignation. People don't stop clinging to the life raft because they are too proud to be saved.
To my way of thinking, the person who convinces himself that he will be saved simply because he deserves to be saved, is the one who exhibits pride. How self-absorbed does one have to be to presume that some inexplicable supernatural force has a vested interest in presiding over their eternal well-being? Who really is the one that suffers from pride?
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...You've been under attack for days, there's a soldier down, he's wounded, gangrene's setting in, 'Who's used all the penicillin?' 'Oh, Mark Paxson sir, he's got knob rot off of some tart.'" - Gareth Keenan
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