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Single Idea 2802

[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity ]

Full Idea

Just as men imagine gods in human shape, so they imagine their way of life to be like that of men.

Gist of Idea

Men imagine gods to be of human shape, with a human lifestyle

Source

Aristotle (Politics [c.332 BCE], 1252b26)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Politics', ed/tr. Sinclair,T.A. /Saunders,T. [Penguin 1992], p.59

A Reaction

A common Greek observation. It is more significant that we anthropomorphise the thinking of the gods, as well as their physiques and banquets.

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]