Did Man Create God?

One of atheism’s leading evangelists Richard Dawkins is known for making bold claims to support his notion that God does not exist. Among his flamboyant rhetoric is the idea that the Judeo-Christian God is nothing more than a man-made idea—likening Jehovah to the pagan gods Zeus and Apollo. He and his atheist counterparts believe that denying the existence of the Christian God is the same as denying the existence of formerly worshiped pagan gods.

In a creation versus evolution debate at a popular Florida university, one atheist professor said, “I know how God was made—man made him!” This idea, however, that man created God is not new. It stems from a theory popularized in the 1800s by an avid evolutionist named Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917). Today, hundreds of students are taught his propaganda that ideas, like humans, evolve from simple to complex. For example, in his book Primitive Culture, Tylor suggests that religion began as spiritualism, which turned into worship of many gods, finally evolving into the Judeo-Christian belief of the all-powerful God.

Today we find spiritualism on the rise, but research into scores of “primitive” tribes shows that early ancestors believed in a one “high god” (see Eternity In Their Hearts by Don Richardson). So, Tylor, Dawkins, and many in the atheist community have it entirely backwards.

Man did not create God—God created man. In the beginning, people knew the one true God, but later denied Him. Because of this, mankind has brought itself into confusion about which god is truth. Today many worship a god they want instead of the God who is (see Romans 1:21-25).