"Although most followers of monotheistic faiths believe God is an abstract force, they will nevertheless describe God as though they were talking about someone they might have met on the street."
About this book
Reza Aslan examines why and how humans tend to anthropomorphize the divine. As societies evolved from small groups of hunter-gatherers to large, specialized populations supported by agriculture, ideas about God changed as well: they began to see humans as dominating nature, and they envisioned gods who did likewise. Studies have shown that although most followers of monotheistic faiths believe God is an abstract force, they will nevertheless describe God "as though they were talking about someone they might have met on the street." What we say about God, in other words, says more about us than about what God might actually be. Whatever God may be, at the very least, Aslan shows us the long history of how humans have made Him in our image, and not vice versa.