PREAMBLE
Ways Faith Can Mask Narcissism
1 Righteous Self-Image
A person may use their religious devotion to appear morally superior, masking insecurities or selfish tendencies.
“I am holy/pious, therefore above reproach” can hide underlying arrogance.
2 Projection of Virtue
Narcissists may emphasize their faith or religious deeds to project a benevolent image while ignoring selfish motives.
Charitable acts or volunteering may be more about perception than genuine altruism.
3 Deflection of Criticism
Religious language can be used to dismiss criticism: “God works through me” or “Only God can judge me,” which avoids accountability.
4 Self-Justification Through Faith
Misusing scripture or doctrine to rationalize self-centered behavior, making harmful actions seem justified or divinely sanctioned.
5 Moral Masking
Public displays of piety can conceal manipulative or exploitative tendencies. Faith becomes a shield for the ego.
Ways Faith Can Fuel Narcissism
A Spiritual Grandiosity
Belief in being “chosen” or “specially favored by God” can reinforce a sense of entitlement or superiority.
“God speaks to me directly” may be a way to assert authority over others.
B Power over Others
Religious status or interpretation can give narcissists control in social or communal settings.
They may manipulate others under the guise of spiritual guidance.
C Validation and Admiration
Piety can attract admiration, reinforcing narcissistic need for attention.
Acts of faith are not done for devotion but for praise and social status.
D Moral Licensing
Believing that being “faithful” allows them to behave selfishly in other areas (“God will forgive me” or “I’m doing God’s work, so my actions are justified”).
E Victimhood and Martyrdom
A narcissist may frame themselves as a spiritual martyr or persecuted for their faith, which feeds their need for attention, sympathy, or validation.
In short, faith can mask narcissism by cloaking self-centeredness in virtue, and it can fuel narcissism by offering spiritual justification, status, or attention.
A narcissist who outsources their narcissism, who centres on a religious figure like the gospel of John version of Jesus or Joseph Smith who show narcissistic traits will be nigh impossible to spot. They get all the benefits and little of the stigma. Jesus and Smith suffer that for them.
MY ARGUMENT
Narcissism may be overblowing the value of the good you do. You see your good as showing how amazing you are and how others deserve hate and indifference, for you are so great. It is overblowing the bad, too. You think your good deed is so valuable and ultimately of cosmic worth. If you don't do the deed but do harm instead, that means you are wonderful inside and did not live up to how divine and superior you are. So you overinflate how bad your bad was. Hell teaches everlasting torment for sin starting at death and is thus an outgrowth of such nonsense. It is narcissistic in the worst possible way. Even if Hell is real, it does not follow that Jesus taught it for good reasons. He might have been trying to play on our narcissistic side. It is narcissistic in the craftiest way. Good narcissists give themselves away, but they don't make it too obvious. The narcissist looks in the mirror and sees a virtual god. The Christian teaches that God loves you so much that He would cease, if able, to be God and to exist if it could help you. So you are virtually divine when even God worships you in that way.
Richard Dawkins made the point that it is arrogant to surmise that the creator of all has nothing better to do than to regard your good deed or your sin as important. Religion says God holds creation together, and it utterly depends on His loving sustaining power. Dawkins talks as if He needs His power for more important things, and the believer wants the attention at the expense of people who need it more. He accuses faith of narcissism. So if God loves all He has made, it follows that what is unimportant to us matters to Him, and He cares for all the same. Jesus said God clothes the flowers better than King Solomon was.
He is right to suggest that believers should be suspected of wanting help from God at the expense of others. Even religion would admit that is a serious problem.
But that is people. Is the principle itself that God should regard me and my good deed and my sin as of such great importance that I cannot imagine it?
Well, Dawkins needs to be told this.
Religion argues that each thing matters to God even if it seems trivial. He is in love with each person.
This teaching does permit you to regard your sore toe to be as serious as somebody's terminal cancer.
If you were humble, you would have to defiantly assert that others should get the help who need it more than you.
So you have to be ungrateful to God!
Dawkins is partly right but needed to expand on it a bit. His suggestion that God has only so much power to go around, so it should go to the most needy, is inaccurate. Yet if we love others, we would tell God that though we know He has the power, He should act as if there is a cap on it, and it should be devoted to people in the worst situations.
Narcissists will think they matter so much to God that He will grant them cheap forgiveness for even heinous evil deeds. Such a teaching can induce narcissism, never mind fuel it. The victims, of course, are left out of the picture.
Too many advocate Christian forgiveness without caring if there is anyone above really looking after the person and protecting them as they try to do the right thing. Or is it the right thing if there is no God? It would depend. Without an overall divine plan, mercy can be dangerous. It opens a door, and it is only luck if nothing absolutely devastating happens. The advocates are really calling for a placebo. We like others to do the forgiving to help society run better while we are not very keen on it ourselves. They want you to move on for them, not for you. They want you to leave the past in the past.
Christian teaching is that God will not force His love and kindness on you. That does not fit how they say He can force tough love. The Bible says He chastises the person He loves. Is unconditional love that you do not want forced on you? Yes, for love that just sits there and won’t act is not love. A person who wallows in their love for you and does nothing is navel-gazing. It is basking in virtue. But the whole point of love is that you are poised to get into productive action. What is narcissistic about advocating this God of love without bounds? The real reason is that you don’t want Him interfering. You want to think He admires you and lets you do what you want with His approval. When people crave unconditional love, they really mean unconditional divine approval. But they do not crave it for people doing things they do not like. The bank robber shoots and wants God's approval, but he wants God's disapproval for the rival bank robber who does the same thing.
One typical example of narcissism in religion is Desmond Tutu. He said he would go to hell rather than go to a homophobic heaven. He said he would not worship a God who is homophobic. Sorry, Desmond, nobody believes you. If LGBT hate is a sin, then hell will be as homophobic as heaven if not worse. We can’t believe people applaud your stupid hypocrisy. Of course you are not going to suffer forever just because you don’t like God’s view of LGBT. And what do you mean by homophobia? Something tells me you are not thinking of the extreme version, where people are beaten on the streets. Most homophobia is just refusing to marry same-sex couples or see them as fully equal, though no obvious harm is done to them. Desmond, you have every intention of enjoying Heaven even if God is unfair to LGBT. Where else are you going to go? It didn't stop you having dinner with homophobic popes and prelates.
Religious freedom is limited when the religion is abusing. Does religious freedom then give a right or duty to speak over and for a man who cannot speak for himself? And especially one who is out of the way, for he died horribly? Jesus signed nothing to let others speak for Him. There is no evidence. Jesus is used by the Church. This is tragic considering how the Church is so antisemitic and its record on Jewish rights has been genocidal.
Views of God are never about one who is just about supporting you whatever you do, but one who has to have an opinion on you and your life. As man decides what God is like, what He is about, it is clear who is trying to manipulate here.
It is easy to take the leap of faith and only think you have landed on faith. If there is no being to guide and nurture faith, then it is going to mean danger. Why does the person of a Christian background not take a leap and land on Islam? Because the leap is more about trying to fit in, in a religious community than anything else.
So don’t be so sure that when you respect somebody’s faith in God, that it is actual faith you respect!!!