Certainly, or at least that's how I see it. I won't get into the debate about the existence of a deity or deities, but it seems to me if a god or gods do exist they are almost definitely not going to resemble human beings. Why would a god have a physical body similar to humans? Surely they are far removed from the restrictions of a physical body anyway (being omniscient) and therefore would lack such an appearance. The anthropomorphisation of gods has occurred throughout civilisation. I feel it is the human way of relating to such beings, as these entities (if they do exist) would be far beyond our comprehension so (I think) we put them into human terms in order to try to understand them.

yes. i agree with that. thats why i believe that there is something out there, but not GOD as such. i cant believe humans are so vain that we would create our ruler (cant think of another word to use) in the image of themselves.

Not if you are quoting the bible.

Yes. At Christmas time I put out a ceramic angel figurine on top of my television. The angel is black. I am not. I have not had a single one of my Christian friends (who are all white, except for the girl that gave me the figurine) come over and see this angel without making a comment like "Oh, I never thought of there being black angels!" At a women's bible group, our pastor (a woman!) asked the question "what if God was a woman?" and I was surprised to find that most of the women there thought it was highly possible. My entire life, while I was Christian, I believed this as well. Yet, when I brought this point up to my uncle, my father, my grandfather, and several other older men, they all fumed and raged that such a thing was not possible at all. It seems to me, that we all imagine a higher power who fits our own idea of what an omniscient being, or god, would look like.

It depends on the society. The very first paleolithic gods were actually based on women, and were worshiped for their fertility. Greek and Roman gods were made based on men and women, Egyptian gods were based on people mixed with animals, and modern gods are based on archetypes (omnipotence, formlessness etc.)

Not exactly. If you're discussing creation, you need to go the other way. However, man constantly tries to limit God to being in man's image. To make God so he's not any better or bigger than the rest of us makes him more manageable and easier to understand. And a little manageable God is easy to deal with, easy to ignore and no more important than your next door neighbor. Man certainly tries to make God into his own image.

people put an image to God when he has no physical image - so in that sense yes. but if you believe in God that he gave us a mind to think and have a spirit and whatnot, then i guess people should refer to that as an image of him instead. pretty much your answer's gonna vary depending on who you ask

That rings true.

? - Who Needs Absurd ‘Beliefs’ - ? Reflections of an Octogenarian. Religiosity? – Throughout life, I’ve never regarded this subject as deserving of any serious thought - - - However, with quietus in the offing, the excessive religious coverage in the media inevitably agitates the neurons. Of late, these irritants have provoked a thorough reappraisal - - - & has utterly confirmed natural intuition! ********************** Logical conclusions after a lifetime of listening (inadvertently) to the delusive portents of various ‘Faiths’. A simple story. No need for the meandrine moonshine of ‘erudite intelligentsia’. Just take yourself back in time & examine unvarnished facts. Please acknowledge that the primitive mind was bound to generate quite naturally, mythological imagery of an Elysian nature. Also, one must accept that the relative ignorance of early Humanity, coupled with understandable fears of the unknown, provided those individuals seeking power over their fellows (a natural human trait) with the conditions to set up as Medicine-Men - Witch-Doctors - Sorcerers - Soothsayers - et al, all claiming to have insights & contact with a ‘power’ - of sorts. So began the blight of Shamanism - - - leading on to airy-fairy religions. As time unveils the past, these facts have not yet been fully appreciated; the ensuing rash of religiosity has not been branded for what it really is - - - An early conceive - of ignorance & apprehension - - - Perpetuated thro millennia by IMPOSTORS - Preying on credulous naivety. The natural process of evolution, via many devious pious paths, has now landed us with the present crop of Archbishops - Ayatollahs - Rabbis - Popes - Imams - JWs - & a host of other hypocritical sect leaders, incessantly brainwashing the largely unthinking masses with their ridiculous & childish ‘Holy Beliefs’. The Billy Grahams of the world, gifted with gab & showmanship, use their ‘bewitching powers’ to prey on the gullibility of the artless. Yes indeed, in modern form, the Witch-Doctors are still at it! - - - Mountebanks All! With it’s initiation as above, religiosity can’t be recognised by any sane person to have the gravitas necessary for any authentic ‘Belief’. Seeking reality is anathema to the pious ones. They critically comment on facts of life that are painstakenly unearthed by the practical hard-working talents of seekers of truth. Knowledge of physics & biology would never have advanced if left to the ‘Holiest of Holy Men’ men. Sun would still be orbiting Earth. The dim past is their’s, with mystical rites that are still prevalent, complete with modern trappings. They are an absurdity! Their endeavours to exalt religiosity by the erection of ever more imposing ‘Places of Worship’ merely highlights – Monumentally – the benighted phases of Man’s past. - - - Hell’s Bells! - - - What a shambles! Weighing up the World-wide situation, a substantial proportion of Humanity are unable to let go of their forebears’ primitive ‘belief’ in a Creator that demands a daily dose of supplication. A person’s specific ‘belief’ is dictated by that part of the globe from where they originated; a simple inheritance of the parents’ unreal ancestral teachings, largely unquestioned! No need to be a ‘Religious Scholar’ (what a fatuous preoccupation) to comprehend why all of this utter humbug survives. Persistent indoctrination over millennia leave the susceptible with feelings of unease when they attempt to ditch the ingrained silly ‘beliefs’ inherited from similarly programmed forebears. Most take an apathetic route & run with the various childish theosophical myths passed down through the generations via pious, shallow-thinking naivety - preferring illusion to reality - fantasy to truth. It has always been decreed that our only way forward is in the utilizisation of everyday experience & research - ie - pure evidential communal common-sense. The need to consult Biblical, Qur’anic, or any other ancient crap-laden fairy tales in order to pursue a decent & considerate existence beggars belief. As with everything, ethics evolve naturally. Man-made ‘Gods’ & ‘Prophets’ are clearly surplus to requirements! The facts listed above are beyond dispute – Theism? / Divinity? – Absolute Man-made hokum! Any thinking person realises that the Universe is truly an awesome Quantum / Astronomical creation. As part of that creation, our attempts at it’s full understanding seem futile. Whether probing the Atom or ‘Heavenly’ Space, we’re contemplating Infinities. Fouling up our minds with a rag-bag of archaic religiose twaddle does nothing to help enlighten our ignorance! Anyone taking this farcical subject seriously has to be absolutely pickled in traditional folklore and/or in a sad mental state. Using it’s bogus validity for an easy living and/or monetary gain, it’s impostrous practitioners must have no real conscience at all. Far too much reverence is devoted to the abstract of religiosity. Vast volumes of impotent bombastic rhetoric has been generated by self-righteous con-men who use their dominant & deceitful acumen to sublimely charm others to wander in an unreal ‘Spiritual Wonderland’ that is totally unworthy of any honest contemplation! ************************* A rational response to the ‘standard’ questions posed by Alpha & similar organisations. What is the point of life? Need there be a ‘point’. Nature instructs all of life to reproduce; to what end, we just don’t know & it’s almost 100% certain that we never will. We can speculate, but are infinitely short of the necessary knowledge to form a valid judgement! Certainly, life’s purpose cannot be identified by any ancient decrepit ‘Belief’! Nature, red in tooth & claw, is pitilessly indifferent to an individual’s quality of life; the fittest for any environment prospers. Individual quality of life is a lottery. We have arrived & must make the best of it. Self-deceivers pray for Ethereal help; none is discernable - - - Quite definitely a DIY job! We live, utilising facts that the experience of life plus research, provides! The paralogism of religious charlatans can’t match the knowledge we now possess, scant though it be. Mystical Theosophy is drivel of the first order. What happens when we die? Starkly, when the brain ceases to function, that ‘being’ ceases to ‘be’. The motivation driving that unique combination of elements is no more! A ‘Spiritual Future’ ????? - - - Pure self-indulgent fantasy! The chemo-electrical activity of the brain – the mind – is naturally prone to generate any illusive mirage. If that imagery is not backed up by factual proof, it remains a fantasy. To give any credence to life after death, one must be round the bend, if not well up the straight! Natural cognition (common sense), affirms life’s future as solely dependent on reproduction! Is forgiveness possible? With almost limitless mutations possible, the evolutionary process can be expected to produce individuals with characteristics of an exceedingly complex gradation, in a myriad of aspects – eg - - - Brilliant to Thick – Jovial to Morose – Benign to Sadistic – Hetero to Homo – ad inf. Religions provide a very accessible dump for the perceived guilt generated by the various indiscretions to which all humans must, in some respect, be victim. The evolution of life cannot be fault-free. We learn as we live. Forgiveness from on high is a concept that is, quite evidently, ludicrous in the extreme! Do not kid thyself – No one is immaculate! Those gifted with conscience & a degree of ‘normalcy’ just have to live with the unfortunates & scallywags; amongst the latter - the ‘Con Men’ - enjoying a very comfortable living with their pretentious ‘Divine’ prognostications! Further thoughts With the barbarous & brutal acts of differing factions, the mutiplicity of silly ‘Beliefs’ has always been a handicap that humanity can well do without. - - - Common sense must prevail! As the sponge-like mind of an infant readily absorbs info, authentic or fallacious, in teaching the necessary basics of life, the follies of illogical & delusory religions should be emphasized - - - Strongly! Offspring should be brought up from birth unprimed with needless pestilential ‘beliefs’ - - - Glaringly Obvious! Preachers pontificate on a subject so ‘Holey’, it is artlessly transparent. Visualise it’s benighted origins & it’s quite obvious that the early human mind was bound to generate mythological imagery of an Elysian nature & from there, receptive, fanciful & predacious minds took over. ‘Beliefs’ were surely born of ignorance & fear of the unknown! With this realisation, why can’t we all recognise simple basic facts & treat all ‘faiths’ of today as ever they really were - - - Dogmatic preservation of irrational early thought. In this more enlightened age - Pure Phantasmic Godswallop! The Rt Rev Fred Flintstone & his contemporaries should have dug themselves out of the Stone-age long long ago! The Past is unveiled thro time. We should all Benefit from it - not Perpetuate it! - - - - - A m e n

Not sure who said this:- "You know you have invented your God when He hates the same people you do."

Wow! This must've been what SODOM & GOMORRAH was like--before THEY "found out the truth!!!!!"

Yes it is, just like the Greeks made their gods in their own image. We don't know what God looks like, and we'll be suprised when we meet him, that he doesn't look like us.

I think it would be a fair assessment to say that man creates god in his own image. It would make sense in comparison to their actions, the wars, the extermination. We want what's ours and nobody else by human nature.

of course- except man didnt really create anything except a dangerous concept that fools love.

We see God as we would have him look not as perhaps he is!

To much of the world their god is $$$$$$$$$$$, gold, diamonds, whatever currency they recognize and use.

You are correct in a sense but it also says in the bible he says" I am the begin and the end, the alpha and omega before me there was none and after me there will be none" and he also says and its one of the commandments "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" Exodus 20-4. Which means that nobody should make an image of GOD weather it is wood, steel, human and etc.

I think so.

XD i have that sticker in hebrew

I think it is. But then I am an atheist.

Man has made gods in his own image. Likely, the One he ignores is the One who made Him and gave him the free will and mind to think and live as he sees fit.

Not originally, but lately, yes.

I would think so, yes. Some of his attributes are those of ordinary man. He gets jealous, he has preference, he gets angry, he commits genocide, he kills animals, he likes lavish worship offered to him, he enjoys having his ass kissed.

You make a decision I really don't care. I'm happy to wait till I die to find out.

I can't belittle anyone's belief or faith system that way. I can say that in my opinion only would I say that is accurate. +4

Man's image of god is reduced to a worldly, physical realm. The true GOD is spiritual/divine in nature.