Narcissism

[Pyrrho]

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My question is how is atheism related to self love or facination with oneself?   Because it seems to me that one could either love or hate oneself and still not believe in god.  I really see no connection. In fact, self hate is another accusation commonly made of atheists.  Being a self loathing narcissist would be quite a trick.

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You see no connection because there is no connection.  The fact that Christians want it both ways, as you have observed, shows that they are wrong, if they are imagining these as pure traits.

Basically, they throw out accusations, hoping something will stick.  It is just a bunch of bullshit.  It should be obvious to anyone who understands what it is to not be a theist, that there is no special trait uniting them beyond their lack of belief, just like there is no great unity among those who are not plumbers or those who are not stamp collectors.  Not being a plumber is not an occupation, and not being a stamp collector is not a hobby.

So, an atheist could be a narcissist, or not.  And an atheist could feel self-loathing, or not.  Just the same as someone who is a Christian or other religionist could be a narcissist or feel self-loathing.

There is one little thing, though, that I disagree with.  It is not hard for people to be narcissistic in some ways, and self-loathing in others.  That fits well with being a traditional Christian, who feels dirty and bad for sin, but feels important that God is going to reward him with heaven for being obsequious.  People can be incoherent and inconsistent, and are more often than is ideal.  That helps a Christian quite a lot when he or she is faced with the contradictions and incoherence of the Bible.