The Sentinel Philosophy: Religion is Narcissistic

Ludwig Feuerbach

Worshipping God is the ultimate act of narcissism. We've created these metaphysical deities, but they walk, they talk, and they behave just like us. They have the same petty jealousies and ambitions as we do, except they have superhero-level powers. We have created a myth out of the story of human beings. This is what the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach talked about in his 1841 work, The Essence of Christianity.

There is something remarkable about the power and ingenuity of human nature. We've survived hundreds of thousands of years through disaster, catastrophe, and famine. We've eradicated diseases. We've put people on the moon. And yet, we've also wiped out entire peoples, we've invented debilitating narcotics, and we never go long without a war. And so, Feuerbach argued that when we reflect on human nature, we are torn somewhere between fear and respect. And so, to make sense of these complicated emotions (we don't know if we should love or hate ourselves) we make those feelings easier to hold by turning human nature into God or gods.

Feuerbach argued that all religion is a projection. We have turned human nature into a god that we can worship. We've created gods of war, gods of wisdom, gods of fertility, and they are all icons of human shortcomings and human failures. And so, religion is an act of narcissism. We are worshipping ourselves. We are celebrating and chastising the angels and demons of our own nature.