Ask HN: How did you fix your narcissism?

The problem is we all carry around a lot of subterranean shame, fear and guilt, and your mind has a way of blinding you too it because those feelings are too intense to handle on a day-to-day basis. As a result, we all have blind spots and dysfunctional habits that we will defend at all costs. Haven't you met brilliant, highly rational people that keep acting stupid over and over again because they refuse to acknowledge their own problems?

We're all a little broken for emotional reasons, not rational reasons. Everyone knows they shouldn't smoke, and drink too much, and spend too much. But lots of people have problems with that, because it's not about a lack of knowledge.

A therapist, over time, gets you to open up, accepts you, and thus shines light on those dark places. When you accept them instead of reflexively rejecting them, you can actually see yourself with more clarity and thus behave more rationally.

So yes, you could learn whatever a therapist could teach you from reading books. But the benefit of a therapist is the relationship. You could also go through the same process with a good friend, but most people are bad at listening and being accepting, especially when you're sharing your deepest secrets. And sadly, most people don't seem to have the time. Haven't you ever tried to share something with a friend, but then they say something judgmental and you never show them that again? A therapist is trained not to do that.

I believe that they are true ones.

There are a number of arguments that science came about in western culture because of Christian belief in an intelligible and orderly creator, at odds with the other philosophies of that time (and arguably our own).

I have read _Meditations_ by Marcus Aurelius. It is obvious that the idea of an intelligible and orderly creator is very much part of the pagan tradition that he is from, which predates and is not of Christian origin.

Furthermore the intellectual roots of empirical science are in ancient Greece. And when it flourished again starting in the 1600s, religious communities (famously including what happened to Galileo) suppressed the dangerous new line of inquiry. Christianity does not seem to have been of assistance.

I've also heard that the original invention of capitalism came about within the monastic university system that generated our modern university.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism#Origins_... lists many theories about the origin of capitalism. The idea that it was invented in monastaries is notably absent.

Jesus does disparage seeking after material wealth, and the early church held all possessions in common to help the needy among them. But, he also tells the parable of the talents, which encourages people to make the most of what they have, and the one guy who doesn't is punished. So, I would say Jesus is anti-greed, not anti-capitalism. The apostle Paul goes onto say those who don't work should not eat, and that hardworking pastors should be financially rewarded.

And are these attitudes part of our culture?

Jesus' golden rule is part of the beatitudes, which I understand to be unique among moral teachings. Foundational is the idea that all humans are created in the image of God, and should be loved accordingly. My understanding is chattel slavery came about after the enlightenment, perhaps due to the elimination of belief that all humans are created in the image of God. Instead we have the Darwinian view that humans form a continuum with animals, and thus implying humans can be treated like animals.

If that is your understanding, then you truly do not know the history. Chattel slavery existed from ancient times. Tying chattel slavery to race was religiously justified by the claim that blacks were descended from Caine and therefore cursed and inferior. The development of the Darwinian view of evolution happened in the same general time frame as the ABOLISHMENT of slavery, not its increase.

Compare. England abolished most slavery in 1833. The Origin of the Species was written in 1859. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was 1863. Its actual adoption took place not many years after.

The view that humans form a continuum with animals coincided with a more humane treatment of humans, not less.

An amusing legal note supports this. Read the case of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellen_Wilson to find that the principle that we should not let children be too badly mistreated by their parents was first enforced in the USA using laws that were intended to prevent undue cruelty to animals. This is a literal case where treating humans as animals lead to humans being treated better!

I do believe the relationship between Christianity and western culture is more than you propose. If you want some interesting secular books to read on the topic, check out anything by Rodney Stark.

I have a counterproposal. Why don't you read https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1185/1185-h/1185-h.htm instead?

And take seriously one of its opening points, namely, "The antagonism we thus witness between Religion and Science is the continuation of a struggle that commenced when Christianity began to attain political power. A divine revelation must necessarily be intolerant of contradiction; it must repudiate all improvement in itself, and view with disdain that arising from the progressive intellectual development of man. But our opinions on every subject are continually liable to modification, from the irresistible advance of human knowledge."