In the Image of God
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:42 am
This was actually a response in facebook to a Christian I don't really know. He was into the idea that all creatures are designed by God Himself, which I don't agree with. The last sentence was actually altered a little by me, but I am posting the direct UB quote so that people on the board know where it comes from.
It is important to understand that being created in the image of God has to do with personality bestowal, our permanence in the presence of change, and has nothing to do with physical appearance or mental capacity. Evolution is how material life adapts to a specific planet. God has more to do with the spark of life than its temporal manifestations. The creatures of time and space are incapable of surviving death (through the building of immortal souls) until the brain has evolved enough to facilitate the mind mechanisms necessary for free will and progressive moral behavior. The human body was not immediately created perfect, it naturally evolved to become just suitable enough for God-knowing mortals to exist.
If the designs of the animal groups are so perfected by the “God of the living”, why is there such a struggle for survival? I am not suggesting that there is no oversight of the evolutionary worlds, but these bodies we inhabit, while miraculous in their own right, are not perfect vehicles. They are only suitable for the beginning experience of the ascending mortals of the realm. God is in all essence the source of permanence, and the mortal life is one of the greatest experiences of change. This change encompasses all three aspects of the human being: physical, mental and spiritual. My point is that God is not in the business of creating that which cannot keep existing. From the eyes of eternity, that which is only ever finite is already dead (in existence, but not of record). What is actually a direct gift from God? That which remains the same, despite an increase in growth, experience, meaning or value. This is the personality, a constant source of individual perspective and awareness, no matter how much the perspective and awareness evolve.
(1225.12) 112:0.12 10. Personality is unique, absolutely unique: It is unique in time and space; it is unique in eternity and on Paradise; it is unique when bestowed — there are no duplicates; it is unique during every moment of existence; it is unique in relation to God — he is no respecter of persons, but neither does he add them together, for they are nonaddable — they are associable but nontotalable.
It is important to understand that being created in the image of God has to do with personality bestowal, our permanence in the presence of change, and has nothing to do with physical appearance or mental capacity. Evolution is how material life adapts to a specific planet. God has more to do with the spark of life than its temporal manifestations. The creatures of time and space are incapable of surviving death (through the building of immortal souls) until the brain has evolved enough to facilitate the mind mechanisms necessary for free will and progressive moral behavior. The human body was not immediately created perfect, it naturally evolved to become just suitable enough for God-knowing mortals to exist.
If the designs of the animal groups are so perfected by the “God of the living”, why is there such a struggle for survival? I am not suggesting that there is no oversight of the evolutionary worlds, but these bodies we inhabit, while miraculous in their own right, are not perfect vehicles. They are only suitable for the beginning experience of the ascending mortals of the realm. God is in all essence the source of permanence, and the mortal life is one of the greatest experiences of change. This change encompasses all three aspects of the human being: physical, mental and spiritual. My point is that God is not in the business of creating that which cannot keep existing. From the eyes of eternity, that which is only ever finite is already dead (in existence, but not of record). What is actually a direct gift from God? That which remains the same, despite an increase in growth, experience, meaning or value. This is the personality, a constant source of individual perspective and awareness, no matter how much the perspective and awareness evolve.
(1225.12) 112:0.12 10. Personality is unique, absolutely unique: It is unique in time and space; it is unique in eternity and on Paradise; it is unique when bestowed — there are no duplicates; it is unique during every moment of existence; it is unique in relation to God — he is no respecter of persons, but neither does he add them together, for they are nonaddable — they are associable but nontotalable.