>>17754529
>outside of a few uneducated rural people maybe, nobody, no matter how devout, genuinely believes God is a literal flesh and bone old bearded man who lives in the clouds, rather seeing that as symbolic
The bible never identifies God as an old bearded man who lives in clouds, and consistently contradicts the idea. Christians have never believed God is a man in the clouds, and any who does is shockingly ignorant, extraordinary, and most likely does not attend a serious church. It is not "symbolic", there is nothing to be "symbolic", the symbolism existed in late medieval and early modern depictions of God (and virtually never before since such depictions were and are universally theologically condemned, unlike say depictions of Jesus which are only condemned by Protestants and ancient Christians) and modern atheists are so incredibly ignorant a literalistic misinterpretation of these artworks is their main reference for theology proper.