Animals have their own gods

"(B15) If horses had hands, or oxen or lions, or if they could draw with their hands and produce works as men do, then horses would draw figures of gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and each would render the bodies to be of the same frame that each of them have." (Eclement, Miscellanies 5.110;tpc)

To be honest, I have no idea about Xenophanes' thoughts right now, as most of his work were poetry. I do think poetry is the most beautiful genre in the world, but at the same time, it is the most difficult to understand.

Luckily I learned something about his life.I know he was born c.570 BCE in Colophon, a city that close to the home of the Milesians and the home of Heraclitus. Perhaps that could explain why some of his views were influenced by the Milesians, and some of them have an effect on Heraclitus. Also, but as the text said it was unlikely, the ancient tradition indicated that Xenophanes was the teacher of Parmenides. And he was a philosopher, as well as poet.

And I do find something interesting when I read the book. In Xenophanes's opinion, every kind of people shares the same right of belief, and even the animals would share the same privilege of religion. As he said, if animals could have the ability of drawing, they could create their own "God": the horse-like God or the oxen- like God. Anyway, their God would not be the human-like God. Thus, he explained that the supreme God exists, but different from what Homer and Hesiod claimed, God is non-anthropomorphic. God was anthropomorphic only because human could draw and paint. 

I can't agree more with Xenophanes' perspective. And even though I hold the view that morality is objective, I believe every ethnic group could have their own God. And force other people to follow "your God" and advocate that only "your God" is the one that exists are the most crucial things around the world. That is part of the freedom of belief, that you could draw down your God in your mind.