God created us in His image, not the other way around.

[William]

Obviously the claim in the OP title is that human beings did not create the idea of GOD in their own image, which appears contrary to the evidence when aligning Abrahamic imagery to human social and cultural behavior, and thus people see this connection and contend that the idea of that GOD most certainly was created in the image of humans.

What does it actually mean "God created us in His image"?

[marco]

Actually, we are created in Adam's image.

Just check Genesis 5:3

And when Adam had lived 130 years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth.

Poor Seth then must have looked very old. But of course Adam may well have retained his youthful vigour (and figure) when he passed his 100th birthday. Those were the days!

[2timothy316]

I'm not talking poetry or interpretation, I'm talking truth.

How many before you have declared the same thing, after reading a text? Were the extraction of truth so clear there would be little or no dissent or difference.

Your assertion about God being sad was, "One would have thought God to be above frailty," and "My own view is that God doesn't shed tears and cry his eyes out."

Genesis 6:6 "Jehovah regretted that he had made men on the earth, and his heart was saddened."

Isaiah 57:15 "For this is what the High and Lofty One says...“I reside in the high and holy place, But also with those crushed and lowly in spirit."

John 11:35 "Jesus gave way to tears."

John 14:9 "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also."

I give you scriptures with no interpretation. All that is needed to see your assertion is wrong is basic reading comprehension skills not interpretation skills.

[2timothy316]

Giving God a heart is exactly what Moses did in his reports; it allows people to digest ideas of God. But it is poetry, whatever you say.

Actually it's whatever you say. The poetry idea are your words not mine, so don't put words in my mouth, thanks.

The Bible says that Moses' writings were breathed by God himself, they are His words not Moses'. This is why your assertion is flawed at the get go. You only see what you want to see. I'm trusting the Bible as the Word of God and you're trusting only yourself. We will never see eye to eye, there will forever be a chasm between the way you think and the way those that trust the Bible think. Real truth about God will forever elude those that rely on themselves rather than God's Word.

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, And do not rely on your own understanding."

[marco]

Giving God a heart is exactly what Moses did in his reports; it allows people to digest ideas of God. But it is poetry, whatever you say.

Actually it's whatever you say. The poetry idea are your words not mine, so don't put words in my mouth, thanks.

You've misunderstood. The poetry idea is indeed mine, a description of what you were doing, consciously or not. I am saying that it IS poetry and I accept that you say it isn't.

The Bible says that Moses' writings were breathed by God himself, they are His words not Moses'. This is why your assertion is flawed at the get go.

By breathed I suppose you are trying to say "inspired". Unlike the Holy Koran the Bible wasn't written or dictated by God, just insired by him. The words are those of humans and although they are often joined together monosyllabically, enabling us quickly to grasp their meaning, there are the usual problems of whether to take a passage literally or whether to add an explanatory comma. The reader may feel that he/ she, too, is inspired by God to extract the true interpretation but I am not quite so confident that people can do this. I think my take is at least as good as somebody else's and if the somebody else shows weakness in general interpretation, I get more confident in my own take.

If God created us in his own image and likeness, he seems to have great facial diversity as well as an astonishing intellectual range. I hear what you are saying and note the Scripture you've quoted but I think a simplistic, literal take is not necessarily the one inspired by the deity. It is maybe a mistake to reduce God to what one would like him to be.

[William]

[Replying to post 18 by brianbbs67]

So, we look like Him (God) in visage, but are different due to our rejecting of his will. (intentionally or not)

So our forms are modeled on GODs form, even that GOD is 'spirit' and has no form. Great parlor trick but awful explanation for the phrase in question.

The argument would work if our forms were modeled on ET forms who created the forms in laboratories using advanced science. That would fit it all together nicely. But that is not what you are saying. You are saying that GOD made a dolly image of himself (penis and all) out of dust and breathed into the dolly and made the dolly 'alive'. And as a result we all know what form GOD has and can draw artists impressions based on this information.

[brianbbs67]

[Replying to post 18 by brianbbs67]

So, we look like Him (God) in visage, but are different due to our rejecting of his will. (intentionally or not)

So our forms are modeled on GODs form, even that GOD is 'spirit' and has no form. Great parlor trick but awful explanation for the phrase in question.

The argument would work if our forms were modeled on ET forms who created the forms in laboratories using advanced science. That would fit it all together nicely. But that is not what you are saying. You are saying that GOD made a dolly image of himself (penis and all) out of dust and breathed into the dolly and made the dolly 'alive'. And as a result we all know what form GOD has and can draw artists impressions based on this information.

Everything after but is my thought only. God and the heavenly host seem to appear as they wish. I assume their true form is like ours. Both creations in Genesis describe this. Wouldn't call it a parlor trick, rather a thought.

I assume and believe God is capable of anything I can imagine. I don't place limits on Him. Even we, know we are carbon based life forms. The building blocks to make everything on this Earth are on this Earth. The recipe is still hidden to us. Think about CPR. Is one who performs it breathing life into a person? Or death?

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 23 by marco]

If God created us in his own image and likeness, he seems to have great facial diversity as well as an astonishing intellectual range. I hear what you are saying and note the Scripture you've quoted but I think a simplistic, literal take is not necessarily the one inspired by the deity. It is maybe a mistake to reduce God to what one would like him to be.

Yes, not necessarily.

A rare point of agreement.

Who, in your take, is "the deity"?

[Elijah John]

Obviously the claim in the OP title is that human beings did not create the idea of GOD in their own image, which appears contrary to the evidence when aligning Abrahamic imagery to human social and cultural behavior, and thus people see this connection and contend that the idea of that GOD most certainly was created in the image of humans.

What does it actually mean "God created us in His image"?

Definitions of the expression, or the word "image" aside, when I put that line in my signature area I meant it as a contrast.

Perhaps for clarification it is better said this way:

"God invented us, we did not invent God". This assertion is the reverse of what many (or most) skeptics promote here on this site.

[William]

[Replying to post 25 by brianbbs67]

Everything after but is my thought only. God and the heavenly host seem to appear as they wish. I assume their true form is like ours. Both creations in Genesis describe this. Wouldn't call it a parlor trick, rather a thought.

Okay. In GODs world, thoughts become instantly manifested. This universe is one such manifestation.

I assume and believe God is capable of anything I can imagine. I don't place limits on Him.

Referring to GOD in the masculine is one way of placing limits on GOD. This in turn evolves into the artistic impressions I posted.

Even we, know we are carbon based life forms.

That is what we think. The following gives 'we' another way of looking at ourselves;

[font=Comic Sans MS]I am the ancestral father of all creation. I am a personality that lives inside each of you as a vibration that emanates from all parts of your existence. I reside in this dimension as your beacon. If you follow this vibration, if you place it at the core of your journey, you will contact my personality that lives beneath the particles of your existence.

I am not to be feared or held in indifference. My presence is immediate, tangible, and real. You are now in my presence. Hear my words. You are in my presence. You are within me more than I am within you. You are the veneer of my mind and heart, and yet you think yourself the product of an ape. You are so much more than you realize.

Our union was, is, and will be forevermore. You are my blessed offspring with whom I am intricately connected in means that you cannot understand and therefore appreciate.

You must suspend your belief and disbelief in what you cannot sense, in exchange for your knowing that I am real and live within you. This is my central message to all my offspring. Hear it well, for in it you may find the place in which I dwell.[/font] ~ Excerpt from Chamber 23—One of three written elements from the body of work known as the WingMakers, ascribed to First Source.

The building blocks to make everything on this Earth are on this Earth. The recipe is still hidden to us.

But slowly being uncovered by science. We cannot reject the idea that Aliens/inter-dimensional beings do not have the science well sorted. Indeed, your reference to the biblical account of creation re earth, implies as much. Beings able to do GOD-stuff.

Think about CPR. Is one who performs it breathing life into a person? Or death?

Neither. The breath is attempting to revive the body-form which the person occupies. If it fails, the person leaves the body-form. Is the person who leaves the body-form dead or still alive?

In the sense of 'GODs breath' it is that which occupies the body-form and is always alive...because it is an eternal agency.

The confusion here is that you appear to be thinking that humans are the body-form, which is the argument atheists like to make when telling theists that we are 'Apes'. I expect more from theists in relation to that, regardless of whether they are Christians or are of any other organised religion.

[William]

[Replying to post 27 by Elijah John]

-God created us in His image, not the other way around.

Definitions of the expression, or the word "image" aside, when I put that line in my signature area I meant it as a contrast.

One liners always require greater explanation. It serves as a good discussion prompt.

Perhaps for clarification it is better said this way:

"God invented us, we did not invent God". This assertion is the reverse of what many (or most) skeptics promote here on this site.

Assuming The Truth is the bulls-eye, the arrow of this one-liner flies truer.

GOD invented things and we are not things. (see my post #28 for more on that one)

We can say that GOD invents for the purpose of experiment, experience, exploration etc.

We can say that our universe was made in the imagination of GOD and as such, becomes instantly manifested as a reality.

The reality can then be explored by GOD in detail, and thus the devil is discovered in the details.

This idea brings conundrum to the dualistic mindset but by removing oneself from that mindset one understands that the devil exists as long as GOD is good and the knowledge of good and evil remains unattained.

We can assume that GOD has this knowledge but we are also led to believe that we do too.

This causes separation. We are GOD within human form lost to the knowledge that we are GOD within human form...lost to the knowledge of GOD.

We believe 'GOD is good' but we struggle to know what GOOD is.

If we understand that we are 'made in the image of' GOD and there is 'evil' in us, we are informed 'the problem of evil' and in that also 'GOD must be evil if we were made in GODs image.'

But we believe GOD is GOOD not EVIL.

So 'conundrum'.

The Devil informed us that if we eat the forbidden fruit, 'we shall be LIKE GOD - having knowledge of good and evil!'

We reply "Oh no! For GOD has told us not even to TOUCH that fruit for we shall surely DIE having the knowledge of good and evil!!"

The Devil replied "Is GOD dead?"

We pondered and decided 'no - GOD is not dead' and thus decided that IF GOD has the knowledge of good and evil and GOD yet lives, THEN the knowledge of good and evil would not cause us to die either. That is reasonable deduction.

So we touched the fruit and did not die, so we ate the fruit and still did not die.

But neither did we KNOW good from evil, and still we do not KNOW good from evil.

What is with that?

The trick therein is that to have knowledge, we must acquire it through experience. There is no magic fruit bestowing this upon us. If there was, then we would have had the knowledge and naturally gravitated to making the choice for GOOD.

But we are made in GODs image and as such we have to LEARN through experience what is GOOD and what is EVIL.

This universe is not designed for that purpose. Why? Because 'death'.

Our lives are literally too short to acquire the knowledge because there is not enough time in an individual life-time in order to do so. Indeed, it would be literally a hell of a thing to live in this universe forever and try to attain the knowledge of good and evil that way.

We are not born with the knowledge but only the potential to begin to learn the knowledge through experience and in that there is also the fact that our actions which we are taught are 'good' are actions considered by others to be evil against them, and visa versa....the Human Drama, which WOULD NOT EXIST if we actually all did have the knowledge of good and evil.

This is why I refer to this experience on this planet in this universe as a stage, and that there is more to go through in attaining the knowledge in the afterlife phase.

We are literally GOD learning the knowledge of good and evil. We are how GOD came to have the knowledge of good and evil and still managed to live eternally.

One can argue that the Garden of Eden metaphor is us wanting to explore the forbidden fruit of this physical universe. Perhaps we should have left well enough alone?

No, not at all. If we do not know something, we are apt to learn, because we are made in the image of GOD, and that is what GOD does.

So how does that fit in with the notion that GOD is all knowing?

If GOD is all knowing and we are made in GODs image, how is it that we too are not all knowing?