In days of old each tribe had their totem spirit or animal. As human groups grew they developed gods.

Not only is a god the alleged source of blessings and curses but the target of prayers and rituals, a figurehead, an idealized and elevated member of the tribe.

Eventually the group projects all kinds of traits onto this being. The traits tell more about the worshippers than about the god.

People definitely create gods in their own image. If you want to know what kind of person you are dealing with, look at their god.

Not only did ancient people create gods to explain natural or unexplainable events, but the whole sacrifice thing is suspect to me; kill a goat and leave on a hilltop altar for an unseen (and powerful and sometimes pissed off) entity for what reason? So the god can eat it! That's the only explaination for that.

We pay taxes today to pay for military, fire and police to protect us, a sacrifice. Tithing is just an updated sacrifice to feed the angry god.

Same with tithing.

Gods have been used and created in a variety of ways. To say that it was only a personification of the community removes a lot of spiritual beliefs. I would say that if there is any, almost universal, trait in the gods of the world it would be the desire to create some sort of theological theory of existence.

I think the original poster is correct. Gods reflect the cultural values and understanding of the people who believe in them. I agree that Gods are used to explain the unknown. They are a working "hypothesis" until a more accurate understanding can be achieved. They are a way to communicate the moral standards of the tribe in story form, which makes it easier for them to be internalized and remembered.

The fact that a god takes on the traits of the community that created or adopted it seems indisputable. My take however is that gods don't have to be representative of their believers. The Christian god for example may act like a Christian, but it does not resemble a Christian.

Absolutely.

Mormons project Mormonism onto the Mormon God. Muslims project Islam onto the Muslim God. Liberal Christians have their liberal God, conservative Christians have their conservative God.

At the macro level, a society's God is the personification of the people who make the prevailing view in that society. As society becomes more liberal, so does God. As society becomes more tolerant of homosexuality, for example, so does their God. As Mormon society becomes less racist, so does Mormon God, and suddenly there is a revelation about blacks and the PH...

If triangles had a god, it would certainly have three sides.

And if squares had a god it would be jesus ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophanes

I have found it interesting to read about this guy. He seems to be one of the original pillars of Abrahamic Monotheism.