From the book, A Course in Miracles – Made Easy
The ego is a severly limited idea about who and what you are. It defines you as a body only, confined within the boundaries of your flesh, subject ot all the laws and experiences that affect bodies.
You can evaluate the truth in a religion or any spiritual path by the size of the gap it defines between you and the heaven you deserve. The greater the gap, the farther the religion has drifted from truth. The closer the gap, the closer the truth. When there is no gap, you are home.