A recent news item helps make the case for religion being a narcissistic delusion. It was a study showing that religion is generally a defense mechanism that some people resort to when they feel they are not in control of their lives. There are other studies I have seen in the past that reached similar conclusions.
A desire for control is a very egotistical desire. A person with a strong ego can accept that he is sometimes not in control, a person with a weak ego has a harder time with that notion.
Even so, wanting to control one's own life is understandable to a degree. What isn't understandable is deluding yourself into thinking you are in control when you are not. If there is reason to believe you are not in control and it makes you uncomfortable, it would be much more rational to respond by identifying things you can change to put yourself back in control.
Religion allows believers to think they control things they don't actually control. It gives believers the delusion that they can control the very universe through their special friend. But, religion hardly stops there; it does something much worse. It gives them the desire to make others conform to the thoughts and ideas of the religious. The conformity expected knows no bounds. Religion effects and governs everything in the believer’s universe, even his thoughts. Believers think that this control should extend to not just the actions of others but also the thoughts of others.
This level of egotism where a person thinks that he or his group should control even how other people think is obviously not the way a sane, decent person thinks. It is the ultimate totalitarian mindset.
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