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This thread was inspired by the following comment:
There's no evidence for explanation 2 and I previously explained some reasons why 1 is a batter explanation than 2. In this thread, I'm going to go over some scientific evidence showing that humans (in this case, I'l be focusing largely on Christians) project onto God, where this projection is often influenced by culture and one's personality. Maybe at some point, someone will be able to muster similar evidence for the claim that God created man in His own image, giving man some characteristics of God's personality, though I highly doubt it.
Originally posted by Kbertsche
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"Believers’ estimates of God’s beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people’s beliefs"
http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/pap...epley2009a.pdf
How Christians reconcile their personal political views and the teachings of their faith: Projection as a means of dissonance reduction
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/10/3616.full.pdf
Was he happy? Cultural difference in conceptions of Jesus
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...92656610001728
Correlation of Self-Perception and Image of Christ Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality
http://download.springer.com/static/...a4d744cc317961
Nearer My God to Thee: Self–God Overlap and Believers’ Relationships with God.
http://www.academia.edu/3257401/Near...ships_with_God
Creating God in Our Image: The Role of Self-Projection in Estimating God’s Beliefs
http://www.alexareynolds.com/MastersThesis.pdf
http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/pap...epley2009a.pdf
"People often reason egocentrically about others’ beliefs, using their own beliefs as an inductive guide. Correlational, experimental, and neuroimaging evidence suggests that people may be even more egocentric when reasoning about a religious agent’s beliefs (e.g., God). In both nationally representative and more local samples, people’s own beliefs on important social and ethical issues were consistently correlated more strongly with estimates of God’s beliefs than with estimates of other people’s beliefs (Studies 1– 4). Manipulating people’s beliefs similarly influenced estimates of God’s beliefs but did not as consistently influence estimates of other people’s beliefs (Studies 5 and 6). A final neuroimaging study demonstrated a clear convergence in neural activity when reasoning about one’s own beliefs and God’s beliefs, but clear divergences when reasoning about another person’s beliefs (Study 7). In particular, reasoning about God’s beliefs activated areas associated with self-referential thinking more so than did reasoning about another person’s beliefs. Believers commonly use inferences about God’s beliefs as a moral compass, but that compass appears especially dependent on one’s own existing beliefs.
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The Jewish and Christian traditions state explicitly that God created man in his own image, but believers and nonbelievers alike have long argued that people seem to create God in their own image as well (2–5)."
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The Jewish and Christian traditions state explicitly that God created man in his own image, but believers and nonbelievers alike have long argued that people seem to create God in their own image as well (2–5)."
How Christians reconcile their personal political views and the teachings of their faith: Projection as a means of dissonance reduction
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/10/3616.full.pdf
"The present study explores the dramatic projection of one’s own views onto those of Jesus among conservative and liberal American Christians. In a large-scale survey, the relevant views that each group attributed to a contemporary Jesus differed almost as much as their own views. Despite such dissonance-reducing projection, however, conservatives acknowledged the relevant discrepancy with regard to “fellowship” issues (e.g., taxation to reduce economic inequality and treatment of immigrants) and liberals acknowledged the relevant discrepancy with regard to “morality” issues (e.g., abortion and gay marriage). However, conservatives also claimed that a contemporary Jesus would be even more conservative than themselves on the former issues whereas liberals claimed that Jesus would be even more liberal than themselves on the latter issues."
Was he happy? Cultural difference in conceptions of Jesus
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...92656610001728
"In Study 1, we asked Korean and American participants to engage in a free association task with Jesus as a target. Americans associated Jesus with primarily positive connotations (“awesome”) and rarely with negative connotations (“pain”), whereas Koreans associated Jesus with both positive and negative connotations. In Study 2, we asked Korean and American participants to rate Jesus and themselves using personality and well-being scales. Americans rated both Jesus and themselves as more extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, open, and happier than did Koreans."
Correlation of Self-Perception and Image of Christ Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality
http://download.springer.com/static/...a4d744cc317961
"In this study, the relationship between one’s self-perception of personality and his or her image of Jesus Christ was studied within a sample of 153 undergraduate students, of whom 130 were Christian and 23 were non-Christian; 23 Protestant pastors; and 55 Protestant laypersons. Using two forms of the NEO Personality Inventory (Self and Observer), ratings of the Big Five personality factors were obtained for both self and Jesus Christ. Results indicated significant positive correlations between ratings of self and Christ in each of the subgroups of Christian individuals. No correlations were found between ratings of self and Christ for the non-Christians. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant differing correlations between groups. Christian persons may project perceptions onto Christ or attempt to mold themselves in a way more consistent with their own images of Christ."
Nearer My God to Thee: Self–God Overlap and Believers’ Relationships with God.
http://www.academia.edu/3257401/Near...ships_with_God
"Three studies, using two community samples (ns = 39 and 78) and a university student sampleof Christian believers in God (n= 76), found that more religious people report greater self– other overlap with God.
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When it came to how much of participants’ descriptions of God overlapped with their views of the self (i.e., God–percentage of overlap), evangelicals also believed that a greater percentage of the adjectives ascribed to God could also be used to describe themselves. However, when evangelicals considered which traits they had that they also ascribed to God, their lists were no more positive or negative than non-evangelicals’. Evangelicals simply claimed a bigger piece of God for themselves, and that piece included both good and bad at roughly the same ratio found in the smaller piece of God claimed by atheists.
Thus, from this first dataset, we have evidence that believers show self–God overlap, as measured through adjective checklists. Furthermore, we have a clear answer to our question about whether believers and non-believers differ in terms of self–God overlap. Believers clearly see their self descriptions as overlapping more with their conceptions of God than non-believers do, and, in fact, using this particular set of adjectives, believers saw almost everything positive about themselves as overlapping with God—and the overlap on positive self traits was greater than the overlap they saw with their mothers (a number which was very similar to what atheists reported about their mothers)."
[...]
When it came to how much of participants’ descriptions of God overlapped with their views of the self (i.e., God–percentage of overlap), evangelicals also believed that a greater percentage of the adjectives ascribed to God could also be used to describe themselves. However, when evangelicals considered which traits they had that they also ascribed to God, their lists were no more positive or negative than non-evangelicals’. Evangelicals simply claimed a bigger piece of God for themselves, and that piece included both good and bad at roughly the same ratio found in the smaller piece of God claimed by atheists.
Thus, from this first dataset, we have evidence that believers show self–God overlap, as measured through adjective checklists. Furthermore, we have a clear answer to our question about whether believers and non-believers differ in terms of self–God overlap. Believers clearly see their self descriptions as overlapping more with their conceptions of God than non-believers do, and, in fact, using this particular set of adjectives, believers saw almost everything positive about themselves as overlapping with God—and the overlap on positive self traits was greater than the overlap they saw with their mothers (a number which was very similar to what atheists reported about their mothers)."
Creating God in Our Image: The Role of Self-Projection in Estimating God’s Beliefs
http://www.alexareynolds.com/MastersThesis.pdf
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