more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 19085
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
]
Full Idea
Mistranslation of 'image' has been the cause of a crass anthropomorphism because of the verse 'Let us make man in Our image after Our likeness' (Gen.1:26). They think God has the shape and outline of man, ..with face and hands like themselves.
Gist of Idea
Thinking of God as resembling humans results from a bad translation of Genesis 1:26
Source
Moses Maimonides (The Guide of the Perplexed [1190], I.1)
Book Ref
Maimonides,Moses: 'The Guide of the Perplexed (abridged)', ed/tr. Guttman,J /Rabin,C [Hackett 1995], p.51
A Reaction
It's interesting that Michelangelo still visualises God as an old man. The idea won't go away, presumably because God is understood as a 'person', in Locke's sense, though of a very special kind.
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[God as a projection of humanity's own image]:
|
150
|
We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves
[Plato]
|
|
2802
|
Men imagine gods to be of human shape, with a human lifestyle
[Aristotle]
|
|
2635
|
The gods are happy, so virtuous, so rational, so must have human shape
[Cicero]
|
|
22732
|
The perfections of God were extrapolations from mankind
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
|
19085
|
Thinking of God as resembling humans results from a bad translation of Genesis 1:26
[Maimonides]
|
|
9112
|
We could never form a concept of God's wisdom if we couldn't abstract it from creatures
[William of Ockham]
|
|
7411
|
The attributes of God just show our inability to conceive his nature
[Hobbes]
|
|
7830
|
A talking triangle would say God is triangular
[Spinoza]
|
|
2185
|
The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds
[Hume]
|
|
6202
|
In all naturalistic concepts of God, if you remove the human qualities there is nothing left
[Kant]
|
|
6917
|
God is the essence of thought, abstracted from the thinker
[Hegel, by Feuerbach]
|
|
19452
|
The nature of God is an expression of human nature
[Feuerbach]
|
|
6903
|
If God is only an object for man, then only the essence of man is revealed in God
[Feuerbach]
|
|
6911
|
God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence
[Feuerbach]
|
|
6923
|
God is what man would like to be
[Feuerbach]
|
|
23041
|
God is the realisation of the possibilities of each man's self
[Green,TH]
|
|
19603
|
Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little?
[Cioran]
|
|
7470
|
During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male
[Watson]
|