Re: Religion and narcissism

From: Jerry Bryson (jbryson@infionline.net)
Date: Sun 22 Jan 2006 - 00:08:18 GMT

  • Next message: Richard Brodie: "RE: Religion and narcissism"

    On Jan 21, 2006, at 6:26 PM, Michelle wrote:

    > "...The point of religion is bind oneself to divinity, to forge a link
    > with a power greater than oneself.For this reason, the essence of
    > religion is humility...."
    >  
    > But, (pls correct me if I'm wrong), isn't this inate desire of forging
    > a link with a power greater oneself is the "product" of the fear of
    > the nature from our hunter-gatherer ancestors? 
    >  
    > Mic

    I think not. The Divine forges the link; we just click on it. We do that because we can. We recommend it to others because we perceive benefits from it. Some may do it from fear of Hell, but it is the link itself that is the McGuffin. I think this is a product of standard Christian memes.

    >
    >
    > Dace <edace@earthlink.net> wrote:Ben writes:
    >>
    >> > A man believes he's the reincarnation of Elvis Presley. He's utterly
    >> > convinced of it. He brings his two young children up to believe he's
    >> > Elvis too, and demands that they address him as "The King". Every
    >> > Sunday, he takes them to the local music hall and subjects them to a
    >> > horrendous karaoke rendition of his favourite ! Elvis classics. He
    >> then
    >> > offers them each a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, in
    >> > commemoration of his past incarnation. He tells them that as long as
    >> > they stay true and believe in the Power Of The Quiff, they'll all go
    >> > to Elvis-land when they die and make some great rock-and-roll music
    >> > together.
    >> >
    >> > It's a relatively harmless belief, just like Christianity, and just
    >> > like your faith in Christianity, it's a belief that is based on the
    >> > man's subjective personal experience.
    >> >
    >> > OK, it's a hypothetical situation (I hope), but do you think this
    >> > man's behaviour is ethical?
    >>
    >> I hope Kate doesn't mind me jumping in here.
    >>
    >> It is absolutely unethical for this man to impose his delusion onto
    >> his
    >> children. But this says nothing about religion. The word "religion" is
    >> derived from the Latin "ligare" meaning to bind. The point of
    >> religion is
    >> bind oneself to divinity, to forge a link wi! th a power greater than
    >> oneself.
    >> For this reason, the essence of religion is humility. To the extent
    >> that
    >> religion teaches humility and respect, there's nothing unethical about
    >> cultivating this belief in children.
    >>
    >> The Elvis man is doing exactly the opposite. Essentially, he's stolen
    >> the
    >> divine and incorporated it into his own inflated ego. This
    >> hypothetical
    >> example, strange as it seems, isn't very far removed from what
    >> actually
    >> happened with L Ron Hubbard and the "church" of Scientology. Hubbard
    >> made
    >> himself into the god around which his church revolves. While
    >> evangelical
    >> Christians aren't quite as bold as Hubbard, they tend to treat God as
    >> sort
    >> of an alter ego. The infantile need to be all-powerful is
    >> institutionalized
    >> in the form of cultlike churches in which humility is brushed aside
    >> in favor
    >> of taking pride at one's special relationship with the Almighty.
    >> Those who
    >> don't belong to the only true church are to be despised and cast into
    >> hell
    >> rather than being respected as children of God who took a different
    >> path.
    >>
    >> The main thing is not religion versus atheism but narcissism versus
    >> humility. Plenty of atheists are narcissistic, and plenty of theists
    >> are
    >> wise and humble. What's unethical is imposing a narcissistic
    >> worldview onto
    >> children, be it religious or atheistic or even Elvistic.
    >>
    >> ted
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> ===============================================================
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    >>
    >
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    Jerry

    "In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're different."

    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

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