Is "God" a projection of human being?

[BurtWorm]

Or is God something human being can't conceive? If the latter, then why do some insist it is "real?"

[Rainbowreflect]

1. Please don't make me think so hard on a Friday afternoon.

[BurtWorm]

2. Okay, try this:

Betty Boop or Betty Rubble?

[Rainbowreflect]

3. With Wilma heading toward the USA, I will say Betty Boop.

[Richard Steele]

19. Gotta go with RUBBLE! Boop is too showy, too flashy...

In my experience, the SHY, retiring types are MUCH more exciting!

Of course, many of you may have not dated
as many "two dimensional" women as me.

Sadly, they weren't animated cartoons...
just 'two dimensional'...*sigh*

[htuttle]

4. "Did you make mankind after we made you?..."

"...and the devil too!"
-- XTC, Dear God

[Az]

5. It's really a question of who you are asking

Ya know?

[dsewell]

6. I know the answer, but first you must answer this:

Can God conceive of a universe that he is not capable of creating?

(Second cousin to the old standard, Can God create a rock so heavy He can't lift it?)

[Darranar]

13. Why does God have to obey logic?

And if He indeed cannot, do you think it matters to Him?

[LizMoonstar]

7. i always say

that god created man and man created god in the same moment -
as in, i think that the point at which homo sapien brains became able to conceive of such a thing as a god, we created god by doing so, but also came into being as 'people' rather than just complicated primates.


but that's just me. i'm no atheist, but i also don't see a need for my 'god' to be the biggest or oldest thing in the universe. i've heard people say that part of the definition of god is that he's all-powerful or some such, and if he's not, then there's no point in worshipping him (don't ask me to explain, i don't remember). i don't buy that. then again, i'm not much for 'worship' anyway - i'm a non-practicing theist :)

[dweller]

8. what's not a projection

of human beings ... ?

dp

[drb]

9. As is so often the case, the answer to your question is another question:

"Who was Jesus Christ?"

It may take some digging, but the answer to that question will tell you everything you need to know about God.

[The Magistrate]

12. That Is An Interesting Proposition, Sir

It does not seem to me any answer to that question would settle the subject.

[Az]

10. We do not experience the identity of anything else

We are only aware of our own identity. Everyone else's identity is merely projected by our mind. We create a memory of the individuals behaviour and assign a sense of identity to it. We project our understanding of our own identity onto this percieved identity.

Thus whether there is a god or not our awareness of it by definition is a projection.

[Imagine My Surprise]

11. that's the concept behind anthropomorphism

[ozone_man]

14. If God created us in his own image

we have more than reciprocated - Voltaire

[Bloodblister Bob]

15. A person's God is their ideal. It's what they aspire to be.

For example, fundamentalist Christians see God as being totally in control, yet not responsible for anything bad that happens. They boast that God made the rules, but doesn't have to obey any of them.

We are seeing this warped mindset at work in Washington every day.

[catbert836]

16. Did god create us or did we create god?

Something I wonder about every day. I think it is a little wierd that a loving, benevolent god would choose us humans to be the world's masters when we're such a wasteful, destructive species.
Sorry for the sidetrack. In answer to your question, I think that people tend to think of their god as anthropomorphic, because we are aware of only our identities, so we tend to project them onto abstract concepts, like gods.

[madeline_con]

17. Humans presume to "know God"....

when they can't even prove one exists.

I find this sadly amusing and often dangerous to others who don't share their particular version of presumption. :(

(edited for spelling)

[nemo137]

18. I tend to think that we put a human framework around something

we couldn't really understand, and that's probably responsibly for alot of the suffering we see.

[catbert836]

20. That's not how "god" developed

I think that gods developed as a deification of the conditions of an ethic group. For example:
1) YHWH: a wrathful, vengeful god of the desert who the Israelites developed from their harsh condition of living in the desert. Once they had a better lifestyle, he became a benevolent, caring god.
2) The Aesir (Norse Pantheon): Angry warriors who fought each other, giants, and humans. The ones who worshipped them were very warlike themselves.
3) The Great Spirit- The Native Americans had plenty and were a peaceful race, and their god represented that.

[Zenlitened]

21. "The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods..."

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or
Geniuses calling them by the names and adorning them with the
properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations,
and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.

And particularly they studied the genius of each city &
country. placing it under its mental deity.
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of &
enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the
mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood.
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.

And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.

William Blake

[JerseygirlCT]

22. Well, yes

Is the image most believers develop and carry around a projection based on their humanity? Sure. It's the only way most can get any grip on the whole God idea.

Do I think God is really limited to a human scope? No. I think the entirety of God is well beyond my ability to perceive. Which doesn't make it wrong to grasp whatever I can.

[NAO]

23. Oddly, God progressed in development as Man progressed in development

[lovelaureng]

24. I think that God

is both, unconceivable and real.

[LWolf]

25. God/s & Goddesses are the universal

"spark" of creative energy that began creation. Everything "created" is energy from that original source. So "God" is energy, and we are all God, or a part of God. Form, character, name, etc. are given by people trying to define the indefinite.

Whether you think that initial energy came from a big bang or from something else...whatever was before the big bang, it's real. How different groups and individuals choose to define it depends on the fraction they understand, or on the level of need for security. The higher the need for concrete absolutes, the more rigid the definition, and the practice of faith.