"A God made by man undoubtedly has need of man to make himself known to man."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Quote Source: The Necessity of Atheism and Other Essays
A God Made by Man: Percy Bysshe Shelley
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I've heard this one before, but I've always thought that the converse was interesting. If god were an entity unto himself, and not just fabricated out of our belief, why would he even bother interfering in our lives? He obviously has better things to do than worry about us. But still, for the sake of some giggles, why would be need us to know him?
You know, to stroke his ego!
This is just like the falling tree in the forest not making a sound if no one hears it. I don't find it so interesting.
Just as a man made by man undoubtedly has need of man to make himself known to man, A God made by God undoubtedly has need of god to make himself known to god, and a god made by god also has need of man to make himself known to man, A man made by god undoubtedly has need of god to make himself known to god and a god made by man undoubtedly has need of man to make himself known to man as stated above. All this means to me is you need something capable of knowing you to be known by it, and thus we are of no use to God and God is of no use to us on an individual level if any level at all.
The quotes were on a roll and then we get this one. What does it even mean and why should we care? The zealots can easily explain this one away as they have been doing for many years.
I agree with the Hulk, with all of the really good quotes that we have seen so far, this one just sneaks in and sours it. The good thing is that this one will soon be forgotten.
Not a very good quote is it now? I don't like the ones that sound pretentious like the author himself is above all others because he thinks the has done something clever.
The meaning is something akin to what I once put thus:
"When Microsoft wants to squish a bug in their operating system, they push it out over the internet to make sure everyone gets the fix. But when god rolls out arguably the most important terms-of-service changes in history, he tells one grubby guy in the middle of the desert."
Well, it seems to have worked.