its giving human abilities to non-human
2006-11-30 18:10:11 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
Lots of atheists in the Religion & Spirituality section use anthropomorphism when they say things like, "If God were real, He would do this. . .," or, "If God were real, He would never do that. . ." They're ascribing human attitudes and perspectives to Someone who isn't a human being.
2006-11-30 18:28:32 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
See the quote below about the computer example of anthropomorphism from website http://www.answers.com/topic/anthropomorphism ---
"Hackers and programmers have always anthropomorphised technology, mostly as a time-saving metaphorical device. Complex technology, specifically computers, can exhibit complicated behavior that can be lengthy to describe in purely inanimate terms. Hackers, therefore, may use human actions and even emotions to describe a computer system's behavior. For example, in a situation where a program encounters minor errors but can still accomplish its task, it may do so but emit an error message. Especially in cases where the error encountered is thought to be trivial, a hacker might say that the computer is complaining. This human action (complaining) conveys that there is a difficulty while acknowledging the triviality of the difficulty, and perhaps the fact that the program does what was required despite the difficulty. See the section on anthropomorphism in the Jargon File for more information, including the self-referentially hackish joke on the topic 'Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.'"
2006-12-01 02:20:32 · answer #2 · answered by Piguy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have to disagree with the people who say that God is a good example on this one; after all, for the most part God is believed to have created man in his own image.
Some real examples would be "My backpack ate my homework," "The computer doesn't like me," or "The pencil just jumped out of my hand." The inanimate object obviously can't do these things or have feelings, or whatever, but people talk about them as if they could or do.
2006-12-01 17:55:46 · answer #3 · answered by brassdollfin 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Stephen Crane's, "The Open Boat", the sea is anthropomorphically indifferent.
2006-12-01 02:12:32 · answer #4 · answered by McKevel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Donald Duck.
2006-12-01 03:53:10 · answer #5 · answered by Incognito 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"...rosy-fingered Dawn..."
The Oddysey
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.mb.txt
In general:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism
2006-12-01 02:19:41 · answer #6 · answered by Josh22 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
An episode of "BJ & The Bear" where the orangutan gets to drive the truck.
2006-12-01 02:20:29 · answer #7 · answered by PD 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How about teaching chimpanzees to sign language
2006-12-01 02:16:09 · answer #8 · answered by Jared H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My dog is in love.
2006-12-01 02:11:19 · answer #9 · answered by KFIfan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
god
2006-12-01 02:11:44 · answer #10 · answered by philosopherking_99 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋