A famous philosopher and novelist- Ayn Rand, pointed out that Christianity, and I would include the other two monotheistic religions, has an inherant contradiction in it-that we must be concerned with saving our souls, but in order to do this we must be concerned with the well-being of other people, helping them and so forth. So why are we helping the poor(those of us that do), for ourselves or because we genuinly care about them? And when we pray, confess our sins, go to temple and mass and pray, couldnt that time be better well-spent doing good for the world, volunteering, donating, giving our services to humanity and so forth? My point is which is more important and what should we prioritize, our own souls or the souls of our fellow human beings?