Originally Posted by graymouser

Men create gods in their own images, so it is not surprising that different authors, prophets, apostles, theologians, priests, and lay people have followed starkly divergent gods. The original YHWH intended by the author of the Pentateuch was different from the YHWH Sabaoth of the Psalmists; the prophets or whoever wrote their books saw quite a different god, and the Christian Bible is more testament to the diversity of views on god (see "Mark" versus "Matthew" versus "Luke" versus "John," and the differences of the evangelists with the authentic Paul, the inauthentic Paul, and the other epistolary writers, all of whom are at odds with one another) than to one Jesus Christ.

Everyone who has ever written about a god is not revealing deep truths about the universe, but instead is showing either their view of how the universe is, or of how the universe ought to be. The entity running the universe is, naturally, more or less like them - the misanthropic John Calvin created a monstrous god, just as today religious humanists write their humanism onto the face of the universe in the guise of god. Theology reveals nothing about god whatsoever - but it tells us a lot about the theologian.

-Wayne