God's Body

What's this strange passage from the Christian Bible all about?

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”



So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

Think about this for a moment. Oh, I know die-hard Christians will say this refers to some sort of 'spiritual' image or likeness, whatever that is, but that can be easily dismissed. The word 'image' refers to something you can see. At a stretch it can mean a mental picture of something. So it very clearly means in the physical likeness of this god; looking like it, and whoever else it was referring to by 'our image'.



So from this we can be fairly sure that, if it's not a mistake, whoever wrote this thought this god (and the others) looked like a human.



But why do humans look the way they do?



Firstly, adult humans come in two types, male and female. They have quite different reproductive organs with different functions (about which more later). They also have slightly different pelvic skeletons to do with these reproductive functions.



Humans have heads with the main control centre of the nervous system in it. Their head also has sensory organs for seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling, and openings for food and an airway for eating, drinking and breathing.



What would an omniscient god need sensory organs and a central nervous system for? What would it need to eat, drink and breath for, and what would happen if it stopped eating, drinking or breathing? Presumably it wouldn't die because it's omnipotent, isn't it?



So, if this god wouldn't need a head what has it got one for?



Humans have chests with lungs and a heart in and ribs to protect them and to allow it to expand and relax to move air in and out of the lungs. They have this because they need to breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide so their bodies work. They have a heart to pump blood around the body to take this oxygen to the rest of the body and to bring carbon dioxide back to the lungs. This blood also takes nourishment around the body.



What would an omnipotent god need a chest with lungs and a heart for? If this god wouldn't need a chest, what has it got one for?



And what does it have on the front of this chest it doesn't need? Does it have male or female breasts?



What does it need an abdomen for if it doesn't need to digest food, excrete urine and faeces and filter impurities, toxins and dead blood cells?



What does it need arms and legs for, and a musculo-skeletal system for locomotion? If it is omnipresent it has no need for movement. Why would it need a covering of skin for protection and temperature regulation and something to grow hair and nails from?



And which set of genitalia does it have; male or female? And what does it need them for if it doesn't reproduce like mammals do?



In short, why would an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent god who lives somewhere other than Earth have a body fitted for living and reproducing in an Earthly environment with Earth's gravity, for finding shelter and food and mates and avoiding predators? And why would it look like a mammal of the anthropoid family?



I wonder if whoever wrote that passage got it wrong and meant to say:

“Let us make a god in our image, in our likeness, so we can claim it said we may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”



So men created a god in their own image, in the image of men they created him; male they created him because they weren't female.

Genesis 1:26-27

(Honest version)

That's probably what they meant. It's the only thing that makes sense unless they were very simple and, with the arrogance of ignorance and the over-confidence of the second rate, assumed they must be a lot like gods.

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