All gods are man made. What is the formal term for this view

Getting to know more about a particular group

Moderator: Moderators

ndf8th
Sage
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:13 am
Location: North Europe

All gods are man made. What is the formal term for this view

Post #1

Post by ndf8th »

Atheists seems very much into formal philosophy.
Using wenn diagrams and lists of belief this and belief that
and lack of belief. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

I believe that all gods are man made. What is the term for that view?

Nothing in the atheist definition refer to this view. Atheists lack belief
while I have a positive belief. That all gods are man made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

So it should have some formal name already or
if it has not then we could suggest a good term for it.

I have access to two of most known atheist books and I did an electronic?
search through both of them and this view seems to not be mentioned in any of these two. George Smith book from 1973 and Michael Martin from 1979.
I used many different key search word and nowhere do they mention this view.

If my view where included in formal atheism then these two would ahve mention it.


Richard Dawkins maybe took it up in his "The Selfish Gene" book 1976
and he suggested that it could be named Memes or Meme complex

Daniel Dennett seems to be the sole philosopher supporting that view.
But it has not caught on and I don't believe in it either.

Edit
Realizing how logically determined many atheists are I maybe have to be
more detailed in my claim?

Q from atheist. "Do you believe that these man made gods exists
and are alive and real and supernatural and creators of the world?

A from "All gods are man made" believer.
I believe that gods are man made to be
existing to be alive and to be real and
to be supernatural and to be creator of the world?

That is how the gods are man made to be. I believe that to be true.
That is how the man made gods are made to be by us humans.
All these features and attributes and claims are built into the gods we make.
It is part of their design to be that way. We made them to ahve these features.

ndf8th
Sage
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:13 am
Location: North Europe

Post #2

Post by ndf8th »

In the wiki they mention Ludwig Feuerbach
"He considered God to be a human invention
and religious activities to be wish-fulfillment.
For this he is considered the founding father of modern
Anthropology of Religion. So one term maybe would be
anthropotheism? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropotheism

but that text is not exactly what I believe but a bit similar.
Anthropotheism is ascribing human form and nature to gods,
or the belief that gods are deified human beings.
Almost opposite to what I believe. anthropotheism describe Greek Gods
rather well but not the Jew Christian Islam god?

but Feuerbach can be the first one that is known to have expressed
what I believe in. While he looked down upon it AFAIK. wishful thinking.

I see this belief as a political social psychological tool for cooperation.
As any such tool it can be exploited and abused instead of wisely used.

ndf8th
Sage
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:13 am
Location: North Europe

Post #3

Post by ndf8th »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology_of_religion
Anthropology of religion
Modern anthropology assumes ...
that every religion is a cultural product
created by the human community that practices it.
that is very close to what I believe.
According to Geertz, religion is "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic" (Geertz 1966).
Is that what I say when I claim that "All gods are man made" ?
So formally my view would be a lay person variety of the academic
Anthropology of religion? What term or name for that lay person variety then?

I am not an academic professor so can not name it Anthropology of religion
and Anthropotheism seems to be only about Greek gods? So suggest a word.

ndf8th
Sage
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:13 am
Location: North Europe

Post #4

Post by ndf8th »

With reservation for my poor English and poor grammar skills
and confusing thinking most logically the term has to be

The Anthropological view on religion and their gods.

User avatar
JoeyKnothead
Banned
Banned
Posts: 20879
Joined: Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:59 am
Location: Here
Has thanked: 4093 times
Been thanked: 2572 times

Post #5

Post by JoeyKnothead »

From the OP:
All gods are man made. What is the formal term for this view
Fact.
I might be Teddy Roosevelt, but I ain't.
-Punkinhead Martin

ndf8th
Sage
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:13 am
Location: North Europe

Post #6

Post by ndf8th »

I am a factual atheist. :)

User avatar
Mr.M
Student
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:55 am
Location: pennsylvania

Re: All gods are man made. What is the formal term for this

Post #7

Post by Mr.M »

[Replying to post 1 by ndf8th]


"Nontheism
is a term that covers a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence or rejection of theism or any belief in a personal god or gods. ..."

"Positive atheism (also called strong atheism and hard atheism) is the form of atheism that asserts that no deities exist"

both of these can be applied as a position affirming that all gods are man made. though I think you are better served with nontheism.

User avatar
zombiefive
Student
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 6:51 pm
Location: Michigan

Post #8

Post by zombiefive »

Replying to OP:

I am still slightly confused on what you actually believe so ill address it from both sides;

1: If you do not believe these man made gods exist;
You would be, at a base level, still an atheist. You seem to be aware that it's not a mutually exclusive term just like agnostic/gnostic. You can be a agnostic atheist/theist or you can be a gnostic atheist/theist.

2: If you do believe these man made gods exist;
Now, if you actually believe that the gods in question, that are made by people, actually exist, can do things in our world and effect it, then you are not an atheist at all and the label shouldn't even be in the discussion. At the very least you would still be a theist. God claims are god claims, regardless of their origination.

I myself, and I would have to say most atheists out there, hold the belief that man created the idea of gods do explain what they didn't know at that time. I know thats a little different than all gods are man made but thats as close as I can get to your view. I don't use a label for that, it's just an explanation for why god claims exist.

Sorry I don't have a term for what you describe as your view but hopefully this gets you closer to finding it.

ndf8th
Sage
Posts: 517
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 7:13 am
Location: North Europe

Post #9

Post by ndf8th »

[Replying to zombiefive]

Thanks to zombiefive for several attempts to get my view.

Most likely I am such a bad thinker that I fail to know mysels.

Suppose we agree on the less demanding claim.

Humans did create the idea of a God.

While I did the more demanding claim that
the God that Humans only made an idea about

May exist a bit more than just to be an idea.
I think it is more like Political views.

These only exists as ideas too but when practiced
they get a way of it's own and almost get a life in our
political arena. Not a real life but it does have real political impact.

So it is life in the aspect I think of in those posts.

But Ialso consider emotional gods
that one can have an emotional relation to.

So these would work to motivate the believer trough emotions

As you can see I simply know too little.

User avatar
McCulloch
Site Supporter
Posts: 24063
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 9:10 pm
Location: Toronto, ON, CA
Been thanked: 3 times

Post #10

Post by McCulloch »

The thing is that most of the stories about the gods involve them in the creation of humans. Now, if humans made the gods, how can the gods make humans? If all of the gods are man made, they are also not literally real. They are cultural imaginations. We can write and tell stories about a vast array of imaginary things: gods, faster than light spaceships, time travel, superheros and wizards, but we cannot make any of them real.

Your view, that all of the gods are man made, is equivalent to the view that none of the gods are real. They are literary creations. Atheism: the gods are not real.
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians
The truth will make you free.
Gospel of John

Post Reply