Xenophanes attacked the immorality and anthropomorph-ism of the gods described by Homer. Homer had described the gods as beings that were much like people, in that they were imperfect, and did not always exist. Xenophanes believed this to be unlikely and demonstrated this by stating, "But if oxen (and horses) and lions had hands or could draw with hands and create works of art like those made by men, horses would draw pictures of gods like horses, and oxen gods like oxen, and they would make the bodies (of their gods) in accordance with the form that each species itself possesses." He believed it ridiculous to think that the gods would be so much like those who worshipped them. .
If the gods were truly superior to those who worship them why would they be anything like those who worship them? Our form is not perfect and therefore is flawed. So to think that the gods share our form is to say that the gods are flawed. If the gods are flawed then they are not that which is implied by the word god and that is perfection. To think that the gods share the same form as us is to assume that we are of the perfect form. Since we are inept to do many things, we are therefore not of a perfect form.
It was his contention that the gods would be unlike men in every way. If the gods were like men then they wouldn't really be perfect, and therefore would not be godlike. And in fact those who say that the Gods were born or died are impious. The reasoning he gives here is,"since in both ways it follows that there is a time when the gods do not exist." If the gods did not exist before the Earth that would mean that they did not create the Earth, and therefore would not be following the traditional views of the gods. The gods were said to have made all that we see and can control all that is, but if there was a time that the gods did not exist and then there is no way they could have created the Earth and therefore would be contradictory to that which we think of the gods.
