The Image of god

What does it mean to say that humans are image-bearers of god?

What does it mean to say humans bear god’s image?

What does it mean when Alabama court chief justice Tom Parker says, “...all human beings have the image of god.”

Let us at least provide the definition of image. 

im·age

/ˈimij/

noun

noun: image; plural noun: images

• 1.

• a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.
  "her work juxtaposed images from serious and popular art"

• 
  

• a visible impression obtained by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other device, or displayed on a computer or video screen.
  "Voyager 2 sent back images of the planet Neptune"

• 
  

• optical representation

• reproduction

• an optical appearance or counterpart produced by light or other radiation from an object reflected in a mirror or refracted through a lens.

• 
  

• MATHEMATICS
  a point or set formed by mapping from another point or set.

• COMPUTING
  an exact copy of a computer's hard disk, made for backing up data or setting up new machines.

• a mental representation or idea.
  "he had an image of Uncle Walter throwing his crutches away"

• 
  

• a person or thing that closely resembles another.
  "he's the image of his father"

• 
  

• semblance or likeness.
  "we are made in the image of God"

• (in biblical use) an idol.

• 
  

• 2.

• the general impression that a person, organization, or product presents to the public.
  "she strives to project an image of youth"

• 
  

• 3.

• a simile or metaphor.
  "he uses the image of a hole to describe emotional emptiness"

So we can, via google, claim that it means semblance or likeness. 

How do humans resemble god? 

Which god do we resemble?

Is it the creator (of the universe) god or the anthropomorphic god of the old testament? 

We resemble the (sic) god that created matter and time?

How? How do we resemble an uncaused cause? How do we resemble the thing that breaks the infinite regress? How? 

If we resemble the anthropomorphic god of the old testament, isn’t that insulting to god? Don’t we really mean to say, and at the same time meanly say it, is that it's the other way round, and god resembles us?

To which Nietzsche might say, “Human, all too human.”

Teenage humans that supposedly bear god’s image are dying after being beaten and bullied in Oklahoma schools. 

But Ryan Walters comforts us, when he says, “There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how god created us.” Comforting to know that Mr. Walters believes that neither nonbinary nor transgender people exist. 

Still more comforting to know that Mr. Walters says that “You always treat individuals with dignity and respect, because they’re made in god’s image.”

I’m just not so sure being beaten and bullied in Oklahoma is treating people with respect. 

I wonder if Mr. Walters thinks that Ardi bears god’s image.

god’s image is a red herring. It is meaningless to say humans bear god’s image. This is meant to drag you away from christian machinations and the fear of secular progress and the ebb of absolutism. 

It’s a public health issue. If you don’t believe me, ask Nex Benedict. 

I wonder if Mr. Walters and Mr. Parker know that Benedict means blessed.

Species

I recently returned from a "vacation" from the outer banks in North Carolina. I put "vacation" in scare quotations because, well, I have three, count em, three young kids, so what I more accurately returned from was, a trip. Anyhoo, on said trip, I visited a putt putt golf, with said kids and...it felt...strange. (The Doors: People are strange, when you're a stranger...) Strange because it was insanely packed with vacationers (and perhaps some native outer banksers) put putting and the course itself was, how shall I say this, awful. The theme was dinosaurs, because who doesn't like to putt putt under a t-rex, but the greens were littered with, well, litter, and the dinos were crumbling and needed paiting and the waterfall had filth and muck and goo and slime and worst to mine eyes, a baby pacifier floating in it. And the, have to say it, people, there just seemed like a different species to me. Now I know I am getting old and am going through this mid-life/whole life crisis thingamagig, but I don't know what that has to do with people's fashion choices and vaping and chewing chaw and drinking coca-cola on a decrepid putt putt course. Some people marvel at the number of species on the planet. What plays a role in our vast, yes vast, number of species, has to do with geographic separation. Birds in South America can't produce viable offspring with birds in Norhtern Europe, let's say. Well, how do birds and other creatures get separated? Well, things like hurricanes and tropical storms and other assorted geographic separaters. So, it is roughly 700ish miles from Rhode Island to the outer banks. Is this enough geopraphic separation to make applicable a new species? Of course not. Through the fashion choices and the vaping and the coca-cola and the chaw and the vast differences, we could still produce viable offspring. Still, the experience was jarring and disorienting, like being thrown and tossed by a Nags Head wave.

Trust...Falls Of Man

I think it was Billy Joel who sang “It’s always been a matter of trust.”

I am reading E.O. Wilson’s The Meaning of Human Existence and was within the first few pages reminded of Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael.

In Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael pre-agricultural man lived at the mercy of the god(s); sometimes there was plenty sometimes there was drought and famine. But a post-agricultural man who can store a surplus of food is no longer at the mercy of the god(s).  (Cue ominous music)

Now this passage from E.O. Wilson’s The Meaning of Human Existence:

…the greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham: how much to retrofit the human genotype. …We are about to abandon natural selection…in order to direct our own evolution by volitional selection-the process of redesigning our biology and human nature as we wish them to be. No longer will the prevalence of some genes over others be the result of environmental forces, most of which are beyond human control or even understanding. The genes and the prescribed traits can be what we choose. So – how about longer lives, enlarged memory, better vision, less aggressive behavior, superior athletic ability, pleasing body odor?

In Quinn’s case the running of the world can be left to the god(s) or man; In Wilson’s case the evolution of man can be left to natural selection (god(s)) or to man.

I get the feeling neither author trusts man with the responsibilities.

Do you?

Quest For Fire

80,000 years ago, man's survival in a vast uncharted land depended on the possession of fire. / For those early humans, fire was an object of great mystery, since no one had mastered its creation. Fire had to be stolen from nature, it had to be kept alive - sheltered from wind and rain, guarded from rival tribes. / Fire was a symbol of power and a means of survival. The tribe who possessed fire, possessed life.

I was finally able to watch Quest for Fire on Netflix…the movie was made in 1981. I was 11. My dad often talked about this movie and I thought about it over the years and came across it the other night and…what a great movie.

I was particularly struck by the scene where a more advance early human shows another man how to create fire. With no dialogue to use the only way to convey the power of what this early man is witnessing is through facial expressions and grunts but with just these, the scene is magic. 

This reminded me of what I read in E.O. Wilson’s book, “The Social Conquest of Earth” about the importance of fire and meat in the evolutionary history of man. Wilson pointed out that our brains are incredible nutrient-sucks; brains require more nutrients than all the other organs and evolutionarily speaking, meat is one of the important nutrients feeding the brain. Wilson pointed out that lighting caused rolling fires over dry grass lands which rolled up animals in the fire, which early humans would then eat.  

In the movie one tribe learns to transport fire (smoldering embers in a tree-trunk like carrier) that can then be used to build larger fires in another location. But, another tribe has learned to CREATE fire.

The great thing about the scene is how the individual mind and the collective mind both explode; the fire would cook the meat that would explode the brain. 

Sublime.

I can’t find that specific scene on youtube but here is the trailer:

Life Finds A Way

Why survive? Why reproduce?

These questions, at one level, seem absurd. 

But back the lens out to the first one celled organism in some sort of inorganic primordial stew and ask: Where did that one celled organism get the “drive” to survive and then, to reproduce?

Does the organic from the inorganic just necessitate a drive to life? How?

They say that evolution isn’t teleological which means that it has no end goal in mind.

Remember Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park: “Life finds a way.”

Why does life find a way? Is this an odd question?