Since Narcissus and his followers seem to be theme of the week I thought I would have five cents worth and ask. Is theist religion just a form of narcissism ? The Greek myth of Narcissus tells of a youth, who fell so deeply in love with the beauty of his own reflection, that he lay by a pool of water, looking at himself, until he pined away and died. Quite silly if taken literally, yet metaphorically, what the story says is, that too much self love destroys your life. Not that your heart stops pumping, but that you will no longer have the chance of a real human life, and to enjoy all the gifts of life, if you are too self absorbed.
The same Ancient Greeks also coined the word “idiot”. Which did not originally mean fool, but a self reliant person who took no part in society. Yet the word soon acquired the modern meaning, because to the Greeks, to give up on society was the ultimate folly, since they saw society as the whole point of life, and the only true source of joy and fulfilment. Giving up on society therefore was to choose a living death; exactly like Narcissus in the picture below, who sees not the beauty of nature behind him, the Iris flowering before him and even the real love of Echo and the warm embrace of her slender arms is lost to his view.
Does theist religion promote Narcissism ? Well. Does it ask its adherents to leave mainstream society behind and devote themselves to the cult alone ? Does it tell you that the most important thing in life, is your own personal relationship with an imaginary friend, who loves you better than any real person ? Does it tell you that making a personal payment, to church or its charity, however small, is all important, but your public role in paying your taxes is not significant to the imaginary friend ? Most of all, does it tell you to fear your own personal death, more than anything, and that your own personal death is the most important thing that will ever happen to you, and probably to the entire universe. Instead of seeing it, as you should, as just a part of the natural cycle of life, where we avoid the sufferings of age, and make space for the young and vigorous who will people the world in their turn after us. The real beauty being in the renewing cycles of life itself, not the life of any one particular animal ? But there, lies the real ironic twist. Because of course what does religion do, except tell the member to obsess over their own personal death, their own personal imaginary friend, and their own failing in pursuit of happiness, the real hobbies of the Narcissist. Yet during all that time praying to the invisible friend, all that wondering if there is another life, and if you are achieving enough to earn your place in heaven, what is happening ? What is happening is that life's opportunities and chances are passing by outside the church door. Being enjoyed with fulfilment by the happy nihilists. For the deep irony is, that if there are gods, and they look down on us, as the Greeks thought they did. Then does the joyful gaze of the gods fall first on those cheerful nihilists, sitting in the sun, drinking coffee and sharing the news with human friends, beneath the garlands of flowers on the vine round the cafe door ? Or do they really approve most of the penitent on sore knees, asking them in vain to explain the meaning of pain, and praying for another life, in the dark of the temple ?
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Very interesting comparison. Yes, I see similarities between religion and the Narcissus story. Now that you raise that question, whether religion promotes narcissism, it also shows the flip side, in that it sure seems like God has classic Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Never thought of it that way before. When "he" treats someone poorly, "he" manipulates his target to worship him more, try harder to please him, feel guilty for things not the target's fault, keeps his target from having fun with just regular life, etc. Maybe I have heard that before, but I didn't give it much thought.
Yes, the old myths addressed so many facets of human nature and perhaps what to watch for if one goes too far one way or another in the various tendencies. They are far more rich that the boring old bible stories, in my mind. One can learn so much more about human nature and pitfalls to avoid by many stories, fables, even novels and movies, than from what one can learn from religion. 
Julie808
Level 8
Jan 10, 2022
1
A great post!
I loved reading the Greek myths in high school, I should revisit them.
Rockitflash
Level 4
Jan 9, 2022
2
Richer and more diverse than the theist myths of the three Abrahamics. They also ask questions rather than assert authority I find.
Naecissus “pined away and died”?
No, he died of happiness, or love. What’s better than dying of either of those? Dying while in orgasm, ok.
yvilletom
Level 8
Jan 9, 2022
1
Well that is a perfectly legitimate way of reading it. Not the one taught in schools though, perhaps for obvious reasons.
I did a double check with several sources including Larousse, wiki and Greek mytholoigy.com. and no, according to most versions of the myth Narcissus did not die a happy death. Just the opposite, he died of frustration, because he could not ever touch the image of himself he saw in the water. And the death was given to him as punishment for rejecting the nymph Echo, a death usually attributed to Nemesis.
@Fernapple Interesting.Thanx for your research.
While living in SF I sometimes used the UC Berkeley and the SF State College libraries. I now have only a two-year college nearby. Forget wiki.
Among even a pre-Homo tribe’s members, a need to dominate varied from person to person, and that need predates the use of oral stories to achieve domination. If someday I write fiction, I will spin the Narcissus theme.
@Gwendolyn2018 Self love is an evil only to those who seek to dominate others.
Being cursed by Nemesis and a death by wasting away or suicide may be fictions, intended to destroy earlier pagan beliefs. Narcissus had a choice. Xianity’s original sin story, in denying choice, is more cruel.
@Gwendolyn2018 What is your evidence that the myth was not changed to destroy earlier pagan ideologies?
Xianity’s authors tried hard to destroy paganism, and pagans.
I hope you aren’t saying someone has written the earliest of humankind’s spoken stories.
@Gwendolyn2018 I could have written that more clearly; I hope you aren’t saying stories don’t exist until someone has written them.
@Gwendolyn2018 The Narcissus myth existed as a spoken story before Homo wrote anything and left evidence for it.
In what form? Did Narcissus enjoy the self-love he knew or did it cause him suffering? The spoken story being lost, we can speculate but cannot know.
During four years of intense and very public political activity, my opponents called me names. I survived and later laughed about my narcissism protecting me. My kid brother much later told me I had become “a bit narcissistic”.
In short, narcissism exists on a spectrum. An excess of it is much like sociopathy, or ASPD.
In moderate amounts, and regarded negatively, it helps governments make large numbers of people governable.
@Gwendolyn2018 Rather wordy. Are you able to mouth the words “I don’t know”?
I majored in math and economics. Post grad and in grad school I studied physics, where evidence is required.
Cosmology’s Big Bang is a popular though unproven creation myth. My creation myth is “I don’t know.”
Ok. (grin)
When I was very young , Mom would read stories from her book of ancient Greek and
Roman myths , the one about Narcis , being one of them . I was very surprised when I began seeing the term in social media , because today's supposed meaning has stretched well beyond the original story . Nice to see someone actually knows the story . Frankly , I find society manipulates everything in order to get whatever it is trying to promote or sell , be it anything up to and including international wars , often pretending to be about God and his demands .
Cast1es
Level 9
Jan 9, 2022
1
I would rather stand at a crossroads all my life being open minded than take an erroneous path to mental oblivion!
Austin-Cambridge
Level 8
Jan 9, 2022
2
I like this view and had not thought about it in some time. It makes sense to me. The inner being of religion is tackled without putting sects or denominations into it. My take on religion as most of us know it has always been that the believer cannot betray his belief because it would mean his ancestors were wrong and they lived it and believed it all for nothing. The death cult of religion gave their lives meaning and is giving the same thing to them. Then we get into the deepest parts of make believe and imagination when we make up the benefits that are passed on to us by the invisible creator as it is seen that our life is only a preparation for death. The story of Narcissus shows that is it is much more than that. At least, it should be.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Jan 9, 2022
2
Religion is one of the earliest forms of carrot (heaven) and stick (hell) training and has proven to be effective when you consider how long it has prevailed in most societies. It is a prison for the mind and fosters confusion and fear in the minds of many people.
ASTRALMAX
Level 8
Jan 9, 2022
5
It also works with (usually) established government for societal control.
@Canndue Especially here in the US.
@CuddyCruiser I don't think it is especially true in the US. I think that society has been under heavy religious control in Afghanistan for a long while and Saudi Arabia too. At least that is the way I see it as a woman. Having said that, with the white men in the legislature here in NH controlling what a woman can do with her own body seems like we are steaming our way to the way things are in fundamentalist Muslim nations.
Interesting post!! The evil hate of these religious clowns! Being burned to death is not quite like dying in your sleep. According to one 'cult', the Christian one, if you do not obey you will burn in hell and the terror of fire does not go on for minutes- it goes on forever. It took ultra-evil minds to think that one up. Yes, between being narcistic or idiotic, according to the ancient Greek words, one is not to enjoy life.
@Canndue Israel has not a state religion. This is false. The 3 Abrahemic religions are practiced there freely. When Jordan ie Palestinians controlled Jerusalem, that was not so. Israel is a democratic nation which changes governments unlike its hostile neighbors which do not. There is no imposed religion in Israel.! The Bahais have a major temple in Haifa.
@OldMetalHead I get that impression a lot where I live.
@OldMetalHead that’s our state motto
@OldMetalHead libertarian, that’s what they cal the anarchists these days.
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