Is Jehovah a Primate?

Cold Steel

The scriptures attest that Adam was made is made in God's image, "after his likeness." And Seth was in Adam's "own likeness, after his image." The question becomes: Since we're all primates, what does this tell us about Jehovah? Does this mean that Jehovah is a primate? If so, what are the implications of that? Why would God possibly need hands, feet, face, nose and the rest?

Adam is in God's image and likeness and Seth is in Adam's image and likeness. Adam and Seth are primates, so does this mean that God is one, too?

What say ye?

cyberjesus

He is a bonobo monkey

zannahdoll

As a theist I always considered God to be pure spirit and love, without the limitations of a body or gender... I've read that the original meaning behind the words or a translation of the words "made in God's image" is that we are made as "God's Shadow" or a "Reflection of God" - I believed that God doesn't have a body and that I am like God, in God's image, because I have the ability to love, I have spirit, a soul. However to think in terms of spirit is so broad, to think of God as a Father and Brother, even as Mother (biblically: Wisdom is a She, and there is the Holy Spirit)... gives me an example, it helps to make God, who, to me, is such a large entity, personal and relatable. Jesus on earth is an example of how to love. God loving us makes Himself available to us in ways that are easier to understand: that is why gender is applied (we have a hard time thinking of non-gender) and relationship (Father, Brother) - gives us an idea of who God is to us, even though He is not a "he". That was always my take on it. Different religions and different have different takes/different interpretations though.

MrFreeze

Man if we are made in God's image I'd HATE to worship that God...

Cold Steel

The scriptures are interesting in that they say that Man is in God's image.

If Man is a primate, what does this say of God?

And why would God need the appendages and appearance of Man? True, we live on a terrestrial abode, walking, talking and living our lives, but why would God be in appearance like Man?

This is not meant to be an impertinent question, nor did I intend to elicit impertinent responses.

Timothy Ware, a convert to Greek Orthodoxy, said that God became Man so that Man could become God. And if we are the "sons of God," then we are children of our Father. But again, why would He need a "human" body? Or a body that appeared human?

BurnTheShips

Is Jehovah a Primate?

You attribute physicality to the idea of "God's image."

I think this is an error.

It is not in our physicality that we most resemble God, I deem.

It is in other, non-physical, aspects.

And why would God need the appendages

God's appendages are nothing like Man's.

To begin with, they are noodly...and manifold.

May you be touched one day.

BTS

Cold Steel

Regarding our "image," the scriptures seem clear that we are in the image and likeness of God in the same way that Seth was in the image and likeness of Adam. If we start "spiritualizing" the scriptures to have them mean what we want them to mean, rather than what they say, we soon lose the ability to understand them, because nothing may be what it seems. The scriptures seem consistent on God having body parts, in that He refers to His mouth, His hand, His face, His bowels and so forth. And Jesus is the express image of the Father. Nowhere does holy writ say these things have spiritual applications, so we should take it at "face" value (couldn't resist): "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen. 1:26-27)

VampireDCLXV

If, for the sake of arguement, an almighty God does exist, he would to have exist outside of the space/time continuum where the laws of physics simply wouldn't apply. If physical laws do not appy, how could there be physical form? Discussion of God's physical form would be then completely irrelelavant.

Any discussion of God's physical form is thus completely assinine, infantile, inconsequential and insulting to anyone's intelligence.

NEXT!

V665

zannahdoll

Cold Steel

You say:

Regarding our "image," the scriptures seem clear that we are in the image and likeness of God in the same way that Seth was in the image and likeness of Adam. If we start "spiritualizing" the scriptures to have them mean what we want them to mean, rather than what they say, we soon lose the ability to understand them, because nothing may be what it seems. The scriptures seem consistent on God having body parts, in that He refers to His mouth, His hand, His face, His bowels and so forth. And Jesus is the express image of the Father. Nowhere does holy writ say these things have spiritual applications, so we should take it at "face" value (couldn't resist): "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen. 1:26-27)

Right there in Genesis it says "male and female" he created them... So was God then a hermaphrodite? God isn't limited to the perceptions on males, nor is he limited to women's thinking. This isn't based on making the scriptures mean what I want them to mean. Personally I also depend on an old authority that is centuries old to decide: church teaching: it is the church and the church's followers that gives authority to the Bible (not the other way around)... I never was big on the whole "sola scriptura" concept. I depend on the traditions and teachings of my church. I am a Catholic - why did I choose to be Catholic: That is the real question. For me, in the beginning there wasn't a good reason: I went with the church that I was born into as a child. As a teenager and as an adult I questioned a few times why I should stay (actually going through another spurt of questioning at the moment): I feel, as far as christian sects go: Catholics have been around the longest with a lineage of Popes since Peter (our first pope) who was a contemporary of Jesus. Now, why am I a christian? That is a better question for which I do not have a good, logical answer for. I am Catholic because it is home, I have made bonds with people who I am not related to and now consider family, because the ethics are in line with mine, there are answers to my questions and it makes me happy.

However: regardless of my being Catholic, I think the general consensus for people who include Genesis as a part of their holy scriptures [Christians (most protestants, catholics, etc), Jews, Islam, etc...] do not believe that God was a primate, nor do they believe that God has genitalia, etc... I would bet that they agree that we are made in God's image because we have His spirit and love - I we are a REFLECTION of God's love.

cyberjesus

the church gives authority to the bible? and who gives authority to the church?

Is Jehovah a Primate?

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