Many have put “Pride” into an all or nothing package of the deadly sins. Better to have shame in oneself than to have pride in oneself, many will say.

That's not common sense, I say.

They have taught man that he is a hopeless misfit made of two elements, both symbols of death. A body without a soul is a corpse, a soul without a body is a ghost—yet such is their image of man’s nature: the battleground of a struggle between a corpse and a ghost, a corpse endowed with some evil volition of its own and a ghost endowed with the knowledge that everything known to man is non-existent, that only the unknowable exists.

Ayn Rand's view of Christianity on this point is based on an incorrect and now antiquated view of Christianity. Christians would say that the body and mind are engaged in deadly conflict, but both are in deadly conflict with different types of evil rather than with each other. The body and consciousness should not be in conflict with each other. When they are, this indeed is a contradiction to be avoided. The nature of the body and the conscience are not opposite nor incompatible, but living a moral, non-contradictory life is challenging (regardless of whether one is religious, atheist, or agnostic). The biggest argument that Christians should have with the above AR claim is "to benefit one is to injure the other". If Christians follow the concept that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, then their bodies must be treated with utmost respect just like all other aspects of their humanity. I am quite sure that some in this audience will reject the concept of a "Holy Spirit", but that is an argument for a different thread.

One must master all aspects of oneself so that one can live a non-contradictory life. AR's characters illustrated quite well how susceptible humans can be to compromising one's values if they live a life of contradiction (ex. Rearden, Keating, Wynand).

Regarding what richrobinson says about the "hopeless misfit", that is AR's view of Christianity. That is not what Christianity professes. Christians will agree that there is a struggle, but it is a struggle between two living aspects of one's humanity. As examples, acts of murder, theft, licentiousness, etc. require both one's body and one's mind and will have consequences on both. A Christian's life is not the battle between a corpse and a ghost. Rather it is a battle between the values that one professes and the reality that, in one aspect or another, sometimes one does not live up to those values. Regardless of one's metaphysics and epistemology, all of us have to fight the battle against hypocrisy. When we are hypocritical, we open ourselves up to attack.

Sounds like the internal description of a communist's mental faculties.

That was excellent. It explains why now we have to change it.

I love that word! Freedom, also.

I doubt that, but appreciate the compliment nonetheless.