“If God should descend to earth and come to live among us, we could not love him unless he became like us or give him anything unless he produced something or listen to him unless he proved us mistaken or worship him unless he manifested his power. All the laws of our nature, affective, economic, and intellectual, would prevent us from treating him as we treat other men, that is, according to reason, justice, and equity. From this I infer that if God ever put himself into immediate communication with man, he would have to become a man.”

— Pierre Joseph Proudhon

Source: What is Property? (1840), Ch. V

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Pierre Joseph Proudhon40

French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and so… 1809–1865

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