Egotheism

Egotheism (Latin: ego — "I", Greek: theos — "god") is the deification of the self, or the belief that "you are God". Elizabeth Palmer Peabody allegedly coined the term in 1858.[1] But compare Robert Alfred Vaughan's "ego-theism" from 1856.[2]

Preach to the choir
Religion
Crux of the matter
Speak of the devil
An act of faith
v - t - e

It is common for people with egotheistic views to assert claims such as "we are all our own gods."

In religion

This belief is perhaps most prevalent in LaVeyan Satanism, which posits that each individual is essentially their own God, meaning they are the master of their own reality. However, Satanists rarely use the term egotheism, instead preferring "apotheosis".

In Hinduism, practitioners identify themselves with God through their atman ("soul"). It might seem to some that this is a form of egotheism, as they believe God is within themselves. However, the way the practitioner attempts to accomplish this is through a complete submission of ego, so it's doubtful if the term is appropriate.

God complex

The belief that one is infallible and therefore a god, is known as the "God complex". It exists among some cult leaders and other delusional people but does not appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders because the DSM explicitly excludes religion-related diagnoses.

See also (but not to be confused with)
gollark: You should use base2048.
gollark: Would base3 not be horrendously long?
gollark: Ah, but without virtualization, that is the real challenge.
gollark: I'm sure you can make it work somehow.
gollark: Install Gentoo and Arch on the same system.

References
  1. Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer (1886). "Egotheism, the Atheism of To-Day". Last Evening with Allston, and Other Papers. Boston: D. Lothrop. p. 240-252. Retrieved 2018-09-30.
  2. Vaughan, Robert Alfred (1856). Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious Opinion. 1. London: John W. Parker. p. 29. Retrieved 2018-09-29. "Is not the history of mysticism bright with stories of dazzling spiritual enterprise, sombre with tragedies of the soul, stored with records of the achievements and the woes of martyrdom and saintship? [...] See it, in theory, verging repeatedly on pantheism, ego-theism, nihilism."
This article is issued from Rationalwiki. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.