What does it mean to be made in the image of God. Surely it doesn't mean that God looks like us (the spitting image).Actually, that's exactly what mormons believe it means.
We know that "In the beginning was the word". The greek word is "logos", which has a close connection to logic. So we are rational creatures.
It means humans made God up. And guess what? He is just as human as we are (at least historically).
Nowadays of course it's more fashionable to believe in a vague amorphous loving creative oversoul, because we all know there's no old man with a beard sitting up there in the clouds.
Well, you know, internet atheists are just the familiar old village atheist with an ethernet cable. They may have changed their venue, but they will never change their routine.
Genesis states, as many theologians have pointed out, that man was created in God’s physical image. Some verses make this connection abundantly clear:
“When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God... [And then when] Adam became the father of a son [it was] in his own likeness, according to his image.” (Gen. 5:1,3)
Ancient peoples spread fables about how the gods found human females physically “beautiful”--nearly as physically beautiful as the gods themselves were depicted as being. Such fables are echoed in Genesis 6:2:
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
In short, the ancient Hebrews believed that humanity was made in the physical image of “God,” even in an image that the “sons of God” found irresistibly attractive. In a similar fashion the ancient Greeks believed that they bore a physical resemblance to their gods, Zeus, Apollo, etc.
Also, both the Hebrew Lord and Zeus liked to “cover their hands with the lightnings” and “restrain” or “loose” it; and the roar of thunder was viewed as their “voice.” And nothing pleased both their noses better than the aroma of flaming sacrificial livestock. As it says in the Bible, “...the Lord smelled the soothing aroma.” (Gen. 8:21; Ex. 29:18; Lev. 1:17, 3:5; Num. 15:13,24; 29:28)
But also consider the story of the way God reacted in the garden of Eden, which likewise seems to imply the physicality of God. Namely that Adam, a physical being, gained knowledge of good and evil, "becoming like one of us," and then was hustled from the garden before Adam could become even more like God and live forever simply by eating the fruit of the tree of eternal life. Add that to God's "walking" with Adam in the garden, and you get a kind of God who appears quite physical indeed. Genesis chapter two certainly appears to depict and assume the existence of that type of God. But then, it's a relatively early document featuring ancient Near Eastern views.
If you have considered what I wrote above also consider just what kind of threat would eating a bit of fruit from the tree of eternal life pose? Would eating such fruit truly grant Adam and Eve eternal life? Such that even God couldn't simply kill them even after they had eaten such fruit? Such that even the cosmos with its hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroids and exploding suns couldn't kill Adam and Eve? This is ancient fable, as is the notion that we are created in the physical image of God, molded by God's hands out of clay.
"The story of the fall of man in Genesis seems originally to have been one of the sardonic folk tales of the Near East that explain how man once had immortality nearly within his grasp, but was cheated out of it by frightened or malicious deities [i.e., Adam and Eve were hustled from the garden by such deities before they could eat of the “fruit of the tree of life” and “live forever” like them]. We have earlier versions from Sumerian times on that are less rationalized than the one in Genesis...The Genesis account permits itself a verse (3:22) in which God seems to be telling other gods that man (after eating of the “fruit of the tree of knowledge”) is “now one of us,” in a position to threaten their power unless they do something about it at once, with a break in the syntax that suggests genuine terror." -- Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature ____________________________
Genesis (chapters two and three) depicts Adam and Eve being hustled from the garden by a frightened or indignant deity after they have tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge “and become like one of us” (like “gods,” or like “God,” depending on your translation). Better evict them before they also take a bite out of “the fruit of the tree of eternal life,” and become even more like gods.
Such myths were invented to explain why man was superior to the animals in having god-like knowledge and amazing creative abilities like speech, yet still suffered the ignominy of death along with all the other animals. Hence, myths arose about man being cheated out of the other god-like quality he wished he had along with his intelligence, namely eternal life.
We can live forever maybe not you and i but US if only we'd put aside the knowledge of these things and just live as we are created, now the knowledge for our daughters of vanity and pride is tearing them apart from love and compassion women once held. Men are pretty much the same as always in the fact they live by this "better toys better than you."Everyone thinks because you have money you can buy a piece of this world but the truth is we are all born into this earth for one cingular purpose to bask in the beauty and to protect every living creature that creepeth upon the earth. Its seems everyone has forgoten we are nothing like them. We are a staryed deformity who looks nothing like the father. Wisdom is the answer not knowledge. Have you noticed how weve become like a nasty organism trying to figure everything out. What for? What does your knowledge enable you? To live another day to fight amongst ourselves about who knows what. To judge. To hate. To lie. You need no knowledge to love.People think knowledge is the answer that it gives you power, your afraid to loose it but the truth is its destorying us, The Father like any father knew this and thousands of years of knowledge and you still cant see it.
8 comments:
we are spirits, like God.
At least that is what I thought it meant.
What does it mean to be made in the image of God. Surely it doesn't mean that God looks like us (the spitting image).Actually, that's exactly what mormons believe it means.
We know that "In the beginning was the word". The greek word is "logos", which has a close connection to logic. So we are rational creatures.
Argument from Reason, anyone?
It means humans made God up. And guess what? He is just as human as we are (at least historically).
Nowadays of course it's more fashionable to believe in a vague amorphous loving creative oversoul, because we all know there's no old man with a beard sitting up there in the clouds.
Ahh, internet atheists. So rarely thinking things through. So precious.
And that wikipedia entry is (what a surprise) lacking. I'd say substantive comes closest - rational souls in the scholastic sense.
Well, you know, internet atheists are just the familiar old village atheist with an ethernet cable. They may have changed their venue, but they will never change their routine.
Genesis states, as many theologians have pointed out, that man was created in God’s physical image. Some verses make this connection abundantly clear:
“When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God... [And then when] Adam became the father of a son [it was] in his own likeness, according to his image.” (Gen. 5:1,3)
Ancient peoples spread fables about how the gods found human females physically “beautiful”--nearly as physically beautiful as the gods themselves were depicted as being. Such fables are echoed in Genesis 6:2:
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
In short, the ancient Hebrews believed that humanity was made in the physical image of “God,” even in an image that the “sons of God” found irresistibly attractive. In a similar fashion the ancient Greeks believed that they bore a physical resemblance to their gods, Zeus, Apollo, etc.
Also, both the Hebrew Lord and Zeus liked to “cover their hands with the lightnings” and “restrain” or “loose” it; and the roar of thunder was viewed as their “voice.” And nothing pleased both their noses better than the aroma of flaming sacrificial livestock. As it says in the Bible, “...the Lord smelled the soothing aroma.” (Gen. 8:21; Ex. 29:18; Lev. 1:17, 3:5; Num. 15:13,24; 29:28)
But also consider the story of the way God reacted in the garden of Eden, which likewise seems to imply the physicality of God. Namely that Adam, a physical being, gained knowledge of good and evil, "becoming like one of us," and then was hustled from the garden before Adam could become even more like God and live forever simply by eating the fruit of the tree of eternal life. Add that to God's "walking" with Adam in the garden, and you get a kind of God who appears quite physical indeed. Genesis chapter two certainly appears to depict and assume the existence of that type of God. But then, it's a relatively early document featuring ancient Near Eastern views.
If you have considered what I wrote above also consider just what kind of threat would eating a bit of fruit from the tree of eternal life pose? Would eating such fruit truly grant Adam and Eve eternal life? Such that even God couldn't simply kill them even after they had eaten such fruit? Such that even the cosmos with its hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroids and exploding suns couldn't kill Adam and Eve? This is ancient fable, as is the notion that we are created in the physical image of God, molded by God's hands out of clay.
To quote Fry [this continues what I wrote above]:
"The story of the fall of man in Genesis seems originally to have been one of the sardonic folk tales of the Near East that explain how man once had immortality nearly within his grasp, but was cheated out of it by frightened or malicious deities [i.e., Adam and Eve were hustled from the garden by such deities before they could eat of the “fruit of the tree of life” and “live forever” like them]. We have earlier versions from Sumerian times on that are less rationalized than the one in Genesis...The Genesis account permits itself a verse (3:22) in which God seems to be telling other gods that man (after eating of the “fruit of the tree of knowledge”) is “now one of us,” in a position to threaten their power unless they do something about it at once, with a break in the syntax that suggests genuine terror."
-- Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature
____________________________
Genesis (chapters two and three) depicts Adam and Eve being hustled from the garden by a frightened or indignant deity after they have tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge “and become like one of us” (like “gods,” or like “God,” depending on your translation). Better evict them before they also take a bite out of “the fruit of the tree of eternal life,” and become even more like gods.
Such myths were invented to explain why man was superior to the animals in having god-like knowledge and amazing creative abilities like speech, yet still suffered the ignominy of death along with all the other animals. Hence, myths arose about man being cheated out of the other god-like quality he wished he had along with his intelligence, namely eternal life.
We can live forever maybe not you and i but US if only we'd put aside the knowledge of these things and just live as we are created, now the knowledge for our daughters of vanity and pride is tearing them apart from love and compassion women once held. Men are pretty much the same as always in the fact they live by this "better toys better than you."Everyone thinks because you have money you can buy a piece of this world but the truth is we are all born into this earth for one cingular purpose to bask in the beauty and to protect every living creature that creepeth upon the earth. Its seems everyone has forgoten we are nothing like them. We are a staryed deformity who looks nothing like the father. Wisdom is the answer not knowledge. Have you noticed how weve become like a nasty organism trying to figure everything out. What for? What does your knowledge enable you? To live another day to fight amongst ourselves about who knows what. To judge. To hate. To lie. You need no knowledge to love.People think knowledge is the answer that it gives you power, your afraid to loose it but the truth is its destorying us, The Father like any father knew this and thousands of years of knowledge and you still cant see it.
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