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Single Idea 7830
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
]
Full Idea
If a triangle could speak it would say that God is eminently triangular.
Gist of Idea
A talking triangle would say God is triangular
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (Letters to Blijenburgh [1665], 1665), quoted by Matthew Stewart - The Courtier and the Heretic Ch.10
Book Ref
Stewart,Matthew: 'The Courtier and the Heretic' [Yale 2007], p.162
A Reaction
Spinoza had a rather appealing waspish wit. This nicely dramatises an ancient idea (Idea 407). You can, of course, if you believe in God, infer some of His characteristics from His creation. But then see Hume: Ideas 1439, 6960, 6967, 1440.
Related Ideas
Idea 407
Mortals believe gods are born, and have voices and clothes just like mortals [Xenophanes]
Idea 6960
Analogy suggests that God has a very great human mind [Hume]
Idea 6967
Order may come from an irrational source as well as a rational one [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
|
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
|
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
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During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male
[Watson]
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