It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image.
[T]ruth is considered profane, and only illusion is sacred
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that society often values falsehoods over the harsh realities of truth.
Ludwig Feuerbach's quote highlights a philosophical critique of society's tendency to embrace comforting illusions while dismissing the often uncomfortable and raw nature of truth. It posits that many people find solace in illusions because they provide a sense of security and belonging, even when they are not aligned with reality. In this light, truth is portrayed as something dangerous or taboo, suggesting that confronting it can lead to discomfort, while illusions are revered and preserved, often at the expense of genuine understanding.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical lecture on the nature of reality and perception.
More from Ludwig Feuerbach
All quotes βThe first and highest law must be the love of man to man. Homo homini Deus est - this is the supreme practical maxim, this is the turning point of the world's History.
To theology, ... only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred.
In the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature.
This work, though it deals only with eating and drinking, which are regarded in the eyes of our supernaturalistic mock-culture as the lowest acts, is of the greatest philosophic significance and importance... How former philosophers have broken their heads over the question of the bond between body and soul! Now we know, on scientific grounds, what the masses know from long experience, that eating and drinking hold together body and soul, that the searched-for bond is nutrition.
The doctrine of foods is of great ethical and political significance. Food becomes blood, blood becomes heart and brain, thoughts and mind stuff. Human fare is the foundation of human culture and thought. Would you improve a nation? Give it, instead of declamations against sin, better food. Man is what he eats [Der Mensch ist, was er isst].
Similar quotes
The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.
At first Babel longed for the use of just two words: Yes and No. But he knew that just to utter a single word would be to destroy the delicate fluency of silence.
God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction.
Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion.
I was forced to stretch my thinking, to realize that sincere and honest people could believe in very divergent religious doctrines.
Nothing is so false as human life, nothing so treacherous. God knows no one would have accepted it as a gift, if it had not been given without our knowledge.