more from this thinker
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more from this text
Single Idea 19452
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
]
Full Idea
God is the manifestation of man's inner nature, his expressed self.
Gist of Idea
The nature of God is an expression of human nature
Source
Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
Book Ref
Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings', ed/tr. Hanfi,Zawar [Anchor 1972], p.109
A Reaction
Even if you are a deeply committed theist, you have to concede some of this point. The perfections attributed to God are usually of human qualities. Leibniz, though, says that God has an infinity of perfection, mostly unknown to us.
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[God as a projection of humanity's own image]:
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150
|
We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves
[Plato]
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2802
|
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
|
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
|
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]
|
|
7470
|
During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male
[Watson]
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