Xenophanes said every culture's gods are just a mirror of its own people
The Presocratic philosopher Xenophanes argued that if horses and oxen could draw, they'd paint gods that looked like horses and oxen -- and noted that Ethiopians pictured their gods as dark-skinned, Thracians as fair-haired and blue-eyed. He concluded each culture's gods reflect its own people, one of philosophy's earliest critiques of religious anthropomorphism.