Man created God in his own image  

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 +"Much has been made by critics of the human origin of the belief in God and of the anthropomorphic character of our conception of Deity. It has been said that "God is the noblest work of man" ; and to [[Heine]] we owe the taunting remark that "if [[Image of God|God made man in his own image]], man made haste to return the compliment." Back in the early days of Greek philosophy [[Xenophanes]] satirized the anthropomorphisms of his day by saying that "the Ethiopians make their gods black-haired and flat-nosed, and the Thracians make theirs red-haired and blue-eyed." "Yes," he added, "[[But if cattle and horses and lions had hands|and if the beasts had hands and could paint and carve, the horses would make their gods like horses, and the oxen make theirs like oxen]]." The assumption underlying such utterances as these, which have been repeated through the centuries, is that the idea of a personal God is man's creation, the giant reflection of his own personality, and that on this account it cannot have objective validity* But in response it may first be pointed out that nothing can exist for us except as we think it." --''[[The Doctrine of God ]]'' by [[Albert C. Knudson ]]
 +|}
[[Image:God.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Detail of [[Sistine Chapel]] fresco ''[[Creation of the Sun and Moon]]'' by [[Michelangelo]] (completed [[1512]]).]] [[Image:God.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Detail of [[Sistine Chapel]] fresco ''[[Creation of the Sun and Moon]]'' by [[Michelangelo]] (completed [[1512]]).]]
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-"[[Man created God in his own image]]" is an [[anthropotheism|anthropotheic]] dictum.+"[[Man created God in his own image]]" is an [[anthropotheism|anthropotheic]] dictum, a reversal of "[[God created man in his own image]]".
-It is generally ascribed to [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] who in in his "[[Lectures on the Essence of Religion]]" states:+It is generally attributed to [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] who in his "[[Lectures on the Essence of Religion]]" (1851) states:
:"Denn nicht Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde, wie es in der [[Bibel]] heißt, sondern der Mensch schuf, wie ich im »Wesen des Christentums« zeigte, Gott nach seinem Bilde." :"Denn nicht Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde, wie es in der [[Bibel]] heißt, sondern der Mensch schuf, wie ich im »Wesen des Christentums« zeigte, Gott nach seinem Bilde."
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In English it reads "God did not, as the Bible says, make man in His image; on the contrary man, as I have shown in ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'', made God in his image. (tr. [[Ralph Manheim|Ralph Manheim]]), shortened to "Man made God in His image." In English it reads "God did not, as the Bible says, make man in His image; on the contrary man, as I have shown in ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'', made God in his image. (tr. [[Ralph Manheim|Ralph Manheim]]), shortened to "Man made God in His image."
-In ''[[The Psychopathology of Everyday Life]]'' (1900) Freud describes how he found himself reversing the well-known text of Genesis, "[[God created man in his own image]]," into "Man created God in his."+Here is that passage of ''The Essence of Christianity''[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Essence_of_Christianity_(1854).djvu/137]:
 + 
 +:"[...] it is only in the origin of a thing that we can discern its true nature. Man first unconsciously and involuntarily creates God in his own image, and after this God consciously and voluntarily creates man in his own image." (tr. George Eliot)
 + 
 +In ''[[The Psychopathology of Everyday Life]]'' (1900) Freud describes how he found himself reversing the well-known text of Genesis, "'God created man in His own image," into "Man created God in his own image."[http://www.reasoned.org/dir/lit/PEL_freud.pdf]
Freud's original German reads "'Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde' und dessen veränderte Fassung '[[der Mensch schuf Gott nach dem seinigen]]'." Freud's original German reads "'Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde' und dessen veränderte Fassung '[[der Mensch schuf Gott nach dem seinigen]]'."
==See also== ==See also==
 +*[[But if cattle and horses and lions had hands]], an idea by Xenophanes
 +*[[Religion is society worshipping itself]], Durkheim
 +*[[Anthropology of religion]]
 +*[[Image of God]]
*[[God created man in his own image]] *[[God created man in his own image]]
*[[Ludwig Feuerbach]] *[[Ludwig Feuerbach]]
*[[Theomorphism]] *[[Theomorphism]]
*[[Anthropotheism]] *[[Anthropotheism]]
 +*[[Genesis]]
*[[Psychological projection]] *[[Psychological projection]]
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}
[[Category:Dicta]] [[Category:Dicta]]

Current revision

"Much has been made by critics of the human origin of the belief in God and of the anthropomorphic character of our conception of Deity. It has been said that "God is the noblest work of man" ; and to Heine we owe the taunting remark that "if God made man in his own image, man made haste to return the compliment." Back in the early days of Greek philosophy Xenophanes satirized the anthropomorphisms of his day by saying that "the Ethiopians make their gods black-haired and flat-nosed, and the Thracians make theirs red-haired and blue-eyed." "Yes," he added, "and if the beasts had hands and could paint and carve, the horses would make their gods like horses, and the oxen make theirs like oxen." The assumption underlying such utterances as these, which have been repeated through the centuries, is that the idea of a personal God is man's creation, the giant reflection of his own personality, and that on this account it cannot have objective validity* But in response it may first be pointed out that nothing can exist for us except as we think it." --The Doctrine of God by Albert C. Knudson

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"Man created God in his own image" is an anthropotheic dictum, a reversal of "God created man in his own image".

It is generally attributed to Ludwig Feuerbach who in his "Lectures on the Essence of Religion" (1851) states:

"Denn nicht Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde, wie es in der Bibel heißt, sondern der Mensch schuf, wie ich im »Wesen des Christentums« zeigte, Gott nach seinem Bilde."

It is often shortened to "Der Mensch schuf Gott nach seinem Bilde."

In English it reads "God did not, as the Bible says, make man in His image; on the contrary man, as I have shown in The Essence of Christianity, made God in his image. (tr. Ralph Manheim), shortened to "Man made God in His image."

Here is that passage of The Essence of Christianity[1]:

"[...] it is only in the origin of a thing that we can discern its true nature. Man first unconsciously and involuntarily creates God in his own image, and after this God consciously and voluntarily creates man in his own image." (tr. George Eliot)

In The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1900) Freud describes how he found himself reversing the well-known text of Genesis, "'God created man in His own image," into "Man created God in his own image."[2]

Freud's original German reads "'Gott schuf den Menschen nach seinem Bilde' und dessen veränderte Fassung 'der Mensch schuf Gott nach dem seinigen'."

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Man created God in his own image" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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