Do we create gods based on our human needs?

Question

Do the various gods answer some need in people?

Answer 1

We create gods in our own image based on our human needs for understanding. Or for "connecting". Or for simply being able to relate or meditate on a particular idea, element, or emotion. Or at least that's what my own beliefs have taught me. I don't view deity as human-like. But rather specific aspects of the whole of all that is. I work with and worship each aspect as an exercise in learning about myself and my relationship to the whole.

Answer 2

Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life.

Aristotle (ca. 384-322 B.C.E.)
Greek philosopher

Possibly. I'm a Taoist, so I only think of deities in the symbolic, metaphorical sense, an imbodiment of some idea. But my pursuit of understanding the Tao may be rooted in a very deep need to be loved unconditionally, to believe that everything will turn out all right in the end, that there is something out there for me to put my feet on when I'm floating. Maybe it's because as a child, I was immersed in fear, and so clung desperately to the idea that what I needed to feel safe was out there somewhere.

My paganism is based on a need to have fun and celebrate life. This is very reassuring psychologically, to celebrate the seasons and the cycles, to tell myself they will always be there, that spring always does, in fact, follow winter.

I can see a lot of reasons like this in my own head, which is why I remain skeptical to my own beliefs ;-)

Answer 3

Been a long time since a god was created here. But the needs have changed. So I would say no.

Answer 4

It is a bandage for fear bred of ignorance and uncertainty about life and the physical universe.

The religions of Abraham (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all were invented by the same historically obscure tribes of semi-nomadic illiterate pastoralists who thought the earth was flat with air above and water below, and who had to invent a god because they needed someone to tell them whether having sex with their sheep was a good thing or a bad thing.

Answer 5

Well, since the polytheists seem to have a god for everything and anything, I'd say so. They just wanted some magical power in their lives so for everything (from the sun and stars to iron workers) they came up with a magical creature who watched over it.
The less imaginative monotheists just dumbed it down into one magical pixie to cover everything.
And that's the history of Western Religion.

Answer 6

Yes all gods are created to fill peoples needs for things they can't understand or cope with

Answer 7

Yes, the majority of people worship God in ways that satisfies themselves but don't take into account how God wants us to worship him... He did leave instructions --YOU'LL FIND THEM IN THE BIBLE--

Answer 8

my tooth fairy isn't very nice - is there a tooth god you know I could get my hands on! I chipped a tooth gnawing on walnuts , the fairy 's got to go!

Answer 9

I am not answering that $hit


Here is what you do get that idol and shove it up your @ss!
That is what Chris Tucker would say from Rush Hour

Answer 10

we couldnt even if we tried