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more from this text
Single Idea 6202
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
]
Full Idea
One can confidently challenge all pretended natural theologians to cite one single definitive attribute of their object, of which one could not irrefutably show that, when everything anthropomorphic is removed, only the word remains.
Clarification
'Anthropomorphic' means human-like
Gist of Idea
In all naturalistic concepts of God, if you remove the human qualities there is nothing left
Source
Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.VI)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Practical Reason (Third edition)', ed/tr. Beck,Lewis White [Library of Liberal Arts 1993], p.145
A Reaction
This idea derives from Hume's very empiricist view of our understanding of God (Idea 2185), but Kant is (remarkably) more hostile than Hume, because he actually implies that most people's concept of God is totally vacuous.
Related Idea
Idea 2185
The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds [Hume]
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[God as a projection of humanity's own image]:
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150
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We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves
[Plato]
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2802
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Men imagine gods to be of human shape, with a human lifestyle
[Aristotle]
|
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2635
|
The gods are happy, so virtuous, so rational, so must have human shape
[Cicero]
|
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22732
|
The perfections of God were extrapolations from mankind
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
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19085
|
Thinking of God as resembling humans results from a bad translation of Genesis 1:26
[Maimonides]
|
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9112
|
We could never form a concept of God's wisdom if we couldn't abstract it from creatures
[William of Ockham]
|
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7411
|
The attributes of God just show our inability to conceive his nature
[Hobbes]
|
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7830
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A talking triangle would say God is triangular
[Spinoza]
|
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2185
|
The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds
[Hume]
|
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6202
|
In all naturalistic concepts of God, if you remove the human qualities there is nothing left
[Kant]
|
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6917
|
God is the essence of thought, abstracted from the thinker
[Hegel, by Feuerbach]
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19452
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The nature of God is an expression of human nature
[Feuerbach]
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6903
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If God is only an object for man, then only the essence of man is revealed in God
[Feuerbach]
|
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6911
|
God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence
[Feuerbach]
|
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6923
|
God is what man would like to be
[Feuerbach]
|
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23041
|
God is the realisation of the possibilities of each man's self
[Green,TH]
|
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19603
|
Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little?
[Cioran]
|
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7470
|
During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male
[Watson]
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