Created in Our Image - Xenophanes

-Xenophanes (c. 570-475 BC) was a poet who would philosophize through his poetry.
   -6th century BC- from Colophon, Ionia (a bit north of Miletus).
   -Traveler, went as far as Sicily and maybe even mainland Italy.
   -Critic of the major poets of the time- especially Homer and Hesiod.
      -Believed that it was obvious that the gods in these stories acted like humans- because they are a projection of human nature!
         -It's not just the Greeks too- the Ethiopians worshiped human-like gods as well, as did the Thracians, etc.
            -"But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have."
         -However, Xenophanes was not an atheist; he just didn't believe in the gods as having faulty human characteristics like jealousy, anger, lust, or even the desire to wear clothing.
            -Believed that the gods weren't human-like, as they were supreme beings.  They didn't require sacrifice, and perhaps didn't require any sort of sustenance or even have physical bodies.  They also didn't have senses, as all of their senses were probably combined into one super-sense.
               -"One god, greatest among gods and humans, like mortals neither in form nor in thought. But mortals think that the gods are born and have the mortals' own clothes and voice and form."
                  -Either all the gods are just manifestations of one god, or perhaps there is an even greater god above the Greek gods...it's unknown and unknowable!
   -Also became a strong critic of the idea of there being a god for various scientific phenomena, such as a god of rainbows or a god of the sun.  A rainbow isn't a god, it's a colored cloud!  The sun isn't a god, it's a cloud of fire!
      -The "real" god is nothing like us, except for the ability to think.
         -However, just because we may believe in this "true nature" of the god doesn't mean that we can know it.  That's impossible!  It's beyond human comprehension.
            -This brings us into an interesting philosophical dilemma about the nature of "believing" vs. "knowing" something.
   -This rivalry between the Pre-Socratic thinkers and the epic poets would continue to grow as time passes.