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Single Idea 6911
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
]
Full Idea
God exists, but he is for us a tabula rasa, an empty being, a mere idea; God, as we conceive and think of him, is our ego, our mind, and our essence.
Clarification
A 'tabula rasa' is a blank page
Gist of Idea
God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence
Source
Ludwig Feuerbach (Principles of Philosophy of the Future [1843], §17)
Book Ref
Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'Principles of the Philosophy of the Future', ed/tr. Vogel,M [Hackett 1986], p.29
A Reaction
He accepted God's existence because of the Ontological Argument. This is a little stronger than Hume's view (Idea 2185), because Hume seems to be talking about imagining God, but Feuerbach says this is our understanding of God.
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
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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
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God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence
[Feuerbach]
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6923
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God is what man would like to be
[Feuerbach]
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23041
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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
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During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male
[Watson]
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