God created man in his/our image. Whats it mean?

For the bible people... It says that God created man in his/our image. What do you guys interperate this to mean?? I also become curious as to why in some versions of the bible it says god created man in our image... tell me what you guys think of both of those statements..

God created man in his image.

My personal opinion leads toward the self awareness. We chose what we do, considered good bad or whatever.. We make our own decisions.. but then at the same time I stump myself because I see man as an imperfect being. We are constantly Learning and learning is our biggest purposes in life..it carries us into the next stage.... I cant make that relate as seeing god as perfect.. but its what I feel is closest to correct.

God created man in our image.
Makes me wonder if there are other selfaware beings that phrase refers too in the universe. Or advanced beings that have evolved to a very high state of being and knowledge.... dunno...

Just curious what you guys think on that subject.

For what it is worth, here are my 2 cents.

We could read the term literally to mean God looks like a man in that he has two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two arms, two legs, etc. This seems to simplistic. There is nothing we could learn from finding out God has a nose like we do or teeth like we do.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that man is created in God's image in that he is born with the innate potential to live up to God's moral image. Men fall short of living up to this ideal by making bad choices or doing bad things. Conversely, they live up to this potential by doing good things. It is also important to note that animals were not created in God's moral image. They do not have the potential we have to live up to God's moral image.

We all have the potential to be like God. We can accomplish this by doing good things. If we are bad however, we are not living up to God's moral image. We are no better than animals when we do this.

I think it is all myth. How will we ever know?

I interpret it to mean that Man created God in his image. In religion everything is backwards, like a nostradamus manuscript.

reply to post by ladyx


Let us assume for argument's sake the Bible is 100% fiction. Does that mean it should be completely disregarded?

There is no way a tortoise and a hare ever agreed to have a foot race. If you dismissed the tortoise and hare story because it in no way happened, you will miss out on a moral lesson.

reply to post by godless


Perhaps the God of the Bible is a man-made construct. It cannot be said that the God of the Bible is exactly like a man. While the God of the Bible has human traits, he also has traits that no man has. For example God has supernatural powers, is omniscient, immortal, and all powerful.

Perhaps the question should be, is what is the image of God the bible is talking about and how that image of God could be present in all of us. Obviously, man can never be omnipotent, immortal, or have other supernatural powers. Man, however, has some qualities that are not present in the animals. These qualities, which make humans unique and set apart from the animals, may be the image of God that is in all of us.

This is what i think.

-First: If God is infinite. What would he look like. Would he look like a human? No.

- A human is a specific combination of compressed energy. Therefor a human has a finite amount of energy which makes up he's shape. What shape would infinity have?

Second: One definition of God is: God is infinite pure energy.

Now keep in mind: God is infinite energy. Humans are a finite amount of energy.

What is so special about our finite composition of energy? Well it gives us a thinking mind and a specific body design/shape.

Now if you where to compare this to God what do you think the image of God is.


My two cents would be our mind. Our mind, The soul. The I am. Is created in the image of God.

Why would our shape be any importance to God?

IS the human shape the most fascinating thing with us humans? Or would it be our mind? What we think and do?





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Well I've wondered this also. I don't think anybody can seriously take the Bible as an accurate first hand account of anything, so it's open to interpretation. I always try and think when reading the Bible 'what does this actually mean in real terms'? What does it actually mean when it says Adam was created from dust and Eve was created from Adam's rib? Anybody with a half a brain knows that's not right. So what does it really mean, if anything?

Personally, I think it could be refferring to an extraterrestrial species who created homo-sapiens by fusing our DNA with homo-erectus. Maybe the extraterrestrials look a lot like us and that's why we were "created in God's image". Or maybe they were just viewed as God's because they are extraterrestrials. Maybe a bit of both.

If you're seriously wanting to study Genesis check out the Ancient Sumerian Tablets that were created thousands of years before the Bible. I think it's far more likely extraterrestrials play a bigger role in our existence than most people can begin to comprehend.

reply to post by Xagathorn


"And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness."
Christians believe the NT describes ONE God, manifested in three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). In looking at the verse from Genesis (Old Testament) that you cite, they say the noun, God - Elohim(which can be plural or singular) is used in the plural, supporting this trinitarian view. Some others (nonChristians) may disagree...you can research their views.

The Bible is emphatic throughout (no disagreement among Abrahamic religions on this) that God says HE IS SPIRIT, not flesh. Therefore, one must infer that the "likeness" and "in our image" phrases do NOT describe physical characteristics. They are spititual (nonflesh) attributes.

From the Bible, we can infer that ability to love and be loved is one. While, we are created, we have the capacity to exist enternaly after death and I do not know how the soul comes into play in this respect in mirroring the attributes of God. Thinking, creating, designing, grieving, sharing, owning, appreciating beauty, and valuing relationship with others are attributes mirroring God the creator othat come to my mind that can be found or inferred from the Bible.

the way i understand it is the reason it says we or our is because more than one entity completes the deity.

GOD= Deity
Father= entity
Son= Entity
Holy Spirit=entity
---
Angels= entities
Gods Poeple= Entities

but they are all "Of God"(deity).

although the best way to tackle this one is to just know that your not the engineer of these and humans are imperfect so trying to understand something perfect like this is a lost cause. its one of those there is no spoon situations where it makes most sense as soon as you stop trying.

In a nutshell, I'd say Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentric perspectives.

I believe in God, but the idea that we are created in the physical image of such a being considering our place and proportion to such a universe is a bit... lacking, in humility and perspective. Honestly, I think geocentricism is quite alive and well - and probably more accepted and promoted than Heliocentric views. I don't mean this in the sense that Earth is center of the universe, but that mankind is the center of "god's" universe. That earth is the fulcrum in some cosmic war of elemental good and evil, and for some reason it's invisible to us - but we play a vital role it's outcome. And this isn't even merely restricted to Theistic religion, but is expressed in many of the NWO/Alien/Reptilian/Etc conspiracies found on this site.

On a more playful level, I've heard that thread title repeated quite often and I figure that if such is true, "God's Image" would be our capacity for imagination and reason. We too can create populated worlds and cosmologies through books, music, theater, simulation, etc. That we can perceive, generate, and understand information we can gather and mentally digest, condensing it into knowledge and technology useful for helping us out and making the world a better.... that seems rather fitting.

Though lately, I've fallen away a bit from that idea. Reasoning is a skill we had to develop and learn over time, not innately expressed by virtue of our brain. Our naturally endowed heuristic thinking skills are (when unaugmented by methodologies such as logic, science and reason), sadly very poor at inferring the workings of reality. Were our thinking process designed to mimic or emulate a system similar to the creators - then wouldn't it be easier to think like the creator and infer accurate understandings of the world the same way we infer language? Beyond that, there's really not a single aspect of the human condition which is in some fashion not also shared by other creatures in the animal kingdom. Tool Use, Syntax, Morality, Art, Emotion, Self-Recognition... it's all there. Perhaps not in the same capacity we can display, or perhaps more subtly to pick up on without our familiar human culture/behavior cues to accompany, but they are present and well documented.

And I see no evidence for the soul or life beyond death in the studies of neuroscience, cognition, or psychology... though all meaningful attributes we typically associate with who we are that is hoped to exist beyond death have been dissected out of consciousness and been mapped to the various brain regions which generate them. Any proposed "soul" energy left after the death of the brain strips out all memory, perception, emotion, sensory stimulation, and other functions would be as inconsequential to who you are as the kinetic energy of your evacuating bowels transfers into their local environment (your pants) and dissipates from there.

What does it mean to say that "God Created us in his Image"? To answer that, let me quote another biblical passage. 1 Corinthians 13:11.

"When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things."

The belief we are created in God's image is, I think, merely a hesitance to put away childish things and accept that we are not the fulcrum by which the Universe rotates.

[edit on 23-2-2010 by Lasheic]

I thought God was more of a spirit? Not having a physical form. that's what I heard from various sources. Can someone give some insight about what God's appearance is.

And said GODs; "Let Us create, man, in Our imagination, according to Our liking...
And created, GODs, ('et) the man, in His imagining,
In the Imagination, of GOD, created him,
male, and female, created, them."

That's my translation directly from the Torah~
Some really interesting things are seen here in this first chapter
(until the chapter 2 verse 4 "birth") being the blueprint "prepared" (the word Bar'e throughout)!

The word "image" TsaLeM is an illusion, protected defended, "shaded" a phantom representing..., a 'showing outwardly' figure.

The word "likeness" DaMUT is as a comparative consideration, a model form, "ideal" example.



[edit on 2010/2/23 by YeHUaH ELaHaYNU]

reply to post by Xagathorn


I just don't buy the (to me) simple explanation God looks likes us. Thats to easy. Unless you believe God is/was an alien, which I don't discount as at least possible. What I believe God "looks like", is a manifistation of a reality we embrace when we die. When we die, and come face to face, so to speak, with Brahma, we enter a no stress, anger, or loss zone. My skills in oratory are far to primitive to even have a clue what that means. My view is those who believe in a punishing God are at best simple minded, at worse cruel and vindictive. Their own fear and hate will destroy them and send them to cosmic reuse. Thats where you get another chance to be an adult, incarnate. Yes, you got to go through it all over again. So when some one says, God will punish you!! Your gay, or support abortion rights, or you vote left, or mabey like to run naked in the pristine fields of the harvest. My ancestors were Druids, where clothing was optional, even in the winter. (talk about balls to the frozen walls).

I think in the end we have or are given the ability to judge our selves. Look at it this way. 2,000 years ago a Roman soldier may have thought it was the right thing to do to crucify some one, or burn some one at the stake in the European middle ages. I think the only time God re-programs your soal is if your a sociopath, with no way to understand the pain of a human or animal.

I doub't very much God looks like me, and if he/she does? I can only hope God looks better in a suit.

Originally posted by IrnBruFiend


If you're seriously wanting to study Genesis check out the Ancient Sumerian Tablets that were created thousands of years before the Bible. I think it's far more likely extraterrestrials play a bigger role in our existence than most people can begin to comprehend.

God didn't make man, the Annunaki did. I'd rather believe The Sumerians than the Bible anyday.

So the god you believe in looks like an ape?

Also if your god did really create our universe, then it's responsible for all of the destruction. What sadistic being would create civilisations, and then wipe them out with asteroids, comets, supernovae, gamma ray bursts, galaxy collisions etc etc etc. This is one psychopathic god that you would have to believe in.

reply to post by downunderET


I agree. That's pretty much my view. I think the Annunaki and the ancient Sumerian Tablets are talking about our real origins.

ENKI "I AM"
YHWH "He To-Be"
ELaHIK "Your Goal"

are the opening words written in stone by the finger of GOD.


[edit on 2010/2/23 by YeHUaH ELaHaYNU]

God is a left-handed guitar player with male pattern baldness?

That would kinda suck.

Are you making GOD in your imagination according to your liking?