Is God man-made? Did man create the idea of God?
The claim is old and blunt: religion is a human invention, and "God" is a word people coined for their own fears, needs, and ideals. The commentators quoted below do not dodge it — several say the charge is half true, and then show exactly where it breaks.
The Charge Stated
One writer takes the accusation head-on, quoting the man who made it famous, and admits it fits a great many people.
J. T. MawsonIt has been said by a popular writer that the word "God" is the vaguest word in the English language, and as used by some people that is certainly true, for they have a God of their own imagination and not the living and true God at all. Voltaire, the French atheist, jeering at the Christian faith, said that "man had created God in his own image and after his own likeness," and he spoke truer than he knew of some people. In Psalm 50 God charges this very thing against the wicked. He says to them, "You thought that I was one like yourself."
Gods As Self-Portraits
If people do build gods, what are those gods made of? One writer answers that they are made of the builder — which is why the history of religion doubles as a record of what man is.
The Bible TreasuryMan has projected an imaginary being, the creation of his own mind, the personification of the qualities he finds in himself — has clothed it with power beyond his own, has deified and worshipped it. In the end he has worshipped himself, or a demon behind himself... And if there were no other and better way, we could learn something of what man is from the gods he has made and worshipped... Thus man is known from the character of his gods.
Not Invention But Substitution
Here the argument turns. The picture of humanity slowly groping upward from ignorance until it dreams up a deity is rejected; what the record shows is a knowledge held and then swapped.
F. W. GrantHe is not a being groping his way out of native darkness, as so many would persuade us. The inspired account of heathenism honours God more, even if it condemns the creature more: "although they knew God, they did not honour him as God, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." They did not have to invent God, but rather to invent the god that they desired; and the god that they desired was one like themselves, a being who could sympathise with the lusts and passions of a corrupt nature.
The Motive Behind The Denial
Atheism is treated here as a matter of will before it is a matter of evidence. The reason is simple, and it is not intellectual.
J. Wilson Smith"God" implies authority, and we all know that restraint is irksome. But further, when "God" means holiness, and the judgment of evil, and the disallowance of what we naturally like, then we do our utmost to banish from our minds, if possible, the existence of any such God at all.
What Creation Can And Cannot Tell
Before any human ideas arrive, the same writer says, something is already speaking. But he is careful about how much it says.
J. Wilson SmithCreation should indeed speak, and its voice be heard. What is invisible in the Creator should be, and is, seen — seen clearly, understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divine nature. Not, indeed, His grace, or truth, or love, but infinite power and design, so much so that people are left without excuse... Creation declares the power of God. It does not reveal what He is in Himself — His nature — but to anyone except the wilfully blind it is evidence enough that a Creator-God exists.
Can God Speak For Himself?
The whole "man-made" theory rests on one assumption: that no word could ever come from God's side. That assumption is tested by turning it around.
William KellyYou cannot of yourselves: man cannot by searching find out God. But God can reveal Himself... If an infidel can make a revelation of his mind to do people harm, I suppose God can make a revelation of His mind to do people good... If a bad being can reveal his mind to ruin, cannot the All-wise and All-good reveal His mind to save?... Otherwise you are reduced to the absurdity that what is possible to man is impossible to God.
The Revelation Given
And the answer to a god men imagine is not a better argument but a Person — one whose coming no human mind would have thought up.
J. Wilson Smith"God is love," the proof being in the gift of His only Son. An amazing gift, never imagined or whispered by creation — a gift unsought by man, and, sadly, how coldly refused... Now, the judgment borne and redemption completed in His death and resurrection, the barrier is removed... Hence that welcome word: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
Summary
- Half true. Man really does manufacture gods — but what he manufactures is a portrait of himself, and worshipping it is worshipping himself.
- Not invented. He did not have to invent God; he invented the god he wanted, one who would sympathise with his passions.
- Not neutral. The wish comes first: "God" means authority, holiness and judgment, so the mind works to remove Him.
- Not silent. Creation already testifies to eternal power and divine nature — enough to leave anyone without excuse, though it never reveals His heart.
- Not ours to reach. Man cannot find God out by searching; but if a man can reveal his mind, God can reveal His — and He has, in the gift of His Son.