Glossary / Lexicon

Xenophanes (ca. 560 - 478 B.C.) believed people created gods in their own image. Xenophanes noted that dark skinned people created dark-skinned gods and light-skinned people created light-skinned gods. He speculated that the gods created by non-human animals would have the characteristics of those animals. Moreover, he postulated the existence of one all-powerful god without human characteristics but warned that all beliefs are suspect, even his own.