THE LIMIT OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM

 A Christian asked the Gadfly, “Why do you say we cannot properly imagine God as human?” 

 The Gadfly responded, “If a painting could think thoughts, it may imagine its creator also being made of paint.  From the perspective of the painting, this is a reasonable idea.  Yet, if an artist creates a likeness of herself upon the canvas, it is only the arrangement of colors that bears the resemblance.  But the nature of paint is not the nature of flesh and blood, and the painting cannot know of the image created by the arrangement of its elements.  That would require the perspective of the artist.  So when the painting contemplates its own nature, it can only do so in terms of the substance of paint.   And when it imagines the artist as partaking of its own nature, the painting will not grasp a true resemblance.  Likewise, we cannot properly imagine God as human because we have yet to understand our own nature.”