To some it up IMHO like @Clare sez, to be truly religious you have to be completely self absorbed and VERY special.

Jesus was just a carpenter in the middle East that got lost in the desert for 30 years. Lol

The self-righteous conceit that you are referring to comes from peoples desire to make themselves feel good, plain and simple. Just a form of mental masturbation!

Ask them what lines the demigod wrote in the bible, this is always good for a scramble. I once met a guy at the beach not sure if he had just landed on the planet or not. He kept insisting that he invented the idea of the idea kept wanting to know if we could buy him a alcoholic beverage we were only about 16 at the time he too was an enlightened individual.

I have written about the in ability extensively on Atheist Nexus under the name compelledunbeliever [atheistnexus.org] . the can not interpret the scriptures BECAUSE they are Christians. The reason why is that they read into the Bible concepts that are fairly modern that do not exist in the Bible and makethat part of their theology. Not in the bibles ancient scriptures, A virgin birth, the rapture, the trinity, original sin,free will just to name a few. These are major Christinan concepts that they actually believe are in the Bible but are not. So when they read something that touches on a similar concept they read those ideas into the Bible.

One of the major things about any religion or cult is exclusiivity. It is almost a necessery requirement. I am special because of my religion. If that was not the case the religion its self would not be special and thus not worth observing.

Devine intervention be it miricules, or special knowed be it hallucinations or what ever is also very important in most religions. It does not matter what the facts are as long as they FEEL that their god is interceding for them.

In short it is an understatement to say I am not surprised. I am very happy that you have on your own made these obversations.

He sounds like a crackpot with goddess and the others seem to have a smug better than thou attitude and you are quite right, it is rampant among the religious regardless of who/what or how they worship. Unfortunately some think it means they are allowed to kill everyone that does not do as they do and believe as they believe.

It is the norm for people to want to think they are special, and look at the universe as it relates to them, whatever their belief. It isn't odd, or unusual, or even bad to think things like,"I was missed 10 times by bullets, I must be lucky." Or substitute 'lucky' for 'in favor of -insert name here-'. In fact, I would argue that people who cannot quantify how someone gets out of sticky wickets on regular occasions, keeps themself alive by following 'the luck' or the 'god blessed' person. Otherwise, their own inability to understand could get them killed.

Doublethink. It is a feature of human personalities to be able to hold contradictory notions and yet see no contradiction. We have not and likely will never be wholely rational beings. We have the abilities and limitations provided by our genome first, then by the social matrix we both provide and live in.

Let's consider the functions of religion. On a societal or group level its about social control. But forget that.
On a personal level, religion appeals to the individual's emotional need for comfort and sense of protection, and for guidance. Since everyone sees countless examples of random suffering, death, and cruelty inflicted on innocents, the cheapest way for the theists to feel safer is to convince themselves that all those horrible things can't happen to them. Why wouldn't those things happen? Well, because they are "specially" protected by God. If just anyone and everyone were protected, the suffering and death we see all around could not happen. Since it clearly does happen, the religiously invested have to convince themselves they are somehow different than "the type of" people who suffer. Self-delusion with a purpose. It can be powerfully resistant to logic.

I actually ask people who post on FB shit like "Thank you god for this feast today"
-What about these guys - Does god pick and chose whhich one of the things he made in his image gets food? along with pictures of starving kids

Yeah, we're all special -- just like everybody else. Although that's actually not a claim that's unique to theism, it is certainly one theism likes to leverage.

The fabulist arrogance that god would forestall a tornado so you could dine at leisure and then clobber everyone afterwards is so ridiculous on its face that I'm surprised even a fundamentalist would gabber on about it in public. But I guess they really don't engage the ol' brain at all when it comes to such things. I guess it reflects their desperate, desperate need for god's approval and favor when there's basically just zero everyday evidence for it. So you look for confirmation, and you find it in some particularly striking contrast like this. Simple confirmation bias.

Jesus is mean. Check out my video.

It's sad if God existed and loves all what's his/her excuse for killing kids with cancer or wiping out whole towns with floods and disease. Next time some ass says god saved me or gods great he cured me or whatever shit they spin. Look em dear in the eye and say yeah what makes you so special when ever minute a kid dies of diseases or hunger where was you're God then.. you sanctimonious

The nature of human beings.
My younger brother was my father's favorite, and he relished that position!