Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him.
Interpretation
Humans are influenced by their time and environment, which shape their beliefs and ideas about the divine.
This quote by Stanislaw Lem suggests that what we perceive as human creations, particularly regarding deities or higher powers, are actually heavily influenced by the societal and temporal contexts in which people live. Rather than individuals simply inventing gods, these figures are integrated into their culture and shaped by the historical and social circumstances surrounding them, reflecting the deeper truths and values of their era.
In practice
In a lecture on the influence of culture on religion, someone might cite this quote.
The only writers who have any peace are the ones who don't write. And there are some like that. They wallow in a sea of possibilities. To express a thought, you first have to limit it, and that means kill it. Every word I speak robs me of a thousand others, and every line I write means giving up another.
We didn't know each other well. I never had the time. Now I see that it doesn't make any difference. The ones who hurry and the ones who take their time all end up in the same place. Just don't have any regrets. No regrets.
Cripple God, who always desires more than he's able to have, and doesn't always realize this to begin with. Who has built clocks, but not the time that they measure. Has built systems or mechanisms that serve particular purposes, but they too have outgrown these purposes and betrayed them. And has created an infinity that, from being the measure of the power he was supposed to have, turned into the measure of his boundless failure.
We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.
No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets.
A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.
Even as I think of myself as a 'rememberer,' I also know my memory is probably doing all this work to reconstruct a narrative where I come off better.
We're never going to come to a moment where all of us who claim to be feminists can agree about what the first priority of feminism is.
Dost thou know what life is, my child? Hast thou comprehended the action of those springs which produce existence? Hast thou examined thyself?
Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ alone who is the bread of life...Even if all the physical hunger of the world were satisfied, even if everyone who is hungry were fed by his or her own labor or by the generosity of others, the deepest hunger of man would still exist...Therefore, I say, Come, all of you, to Christ. He is the bread of life. Come to Christ and you will never be hungry again.
Challenging the integrity of the non-proliferation regime is a matter which can affect international peace and security.
The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement.
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