Just thinking and had an interesting thought, all opinions welcome!

Very thought-provoking post! Genesis 1:27 King James Version (KJV) 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. What does that mean that God created man (man and woman) in his own image? To me, it means that we can think and feel like God. That we have the capability of manifesting all his attributes in a limited or small-scale way compared to Him. God can paint the sky with a beautiful sunset and we can make a painting or take a picture of the same beautiful sunset. We have enough to grasp in a limited way his love, justice, wisdom and power. That if we want, we can be like Him on a small-scale way. This is what it means to me that we were created in His image. So every event recorded in the Bible or everything that takes place or that we do and say: we can grasp why God did or allows such a thing to take place. And when we do that and act like God would act then we have taken a giant leap. Just curious: which book did you choose? All the best with your project!

Wow, what a topic for discussion. You really want our brains to go into overdrive. There are a few topics I rarely discuss, one of them being religion. But, you do have a point that makes me want to discuss it. When you do think about it, we were made in God's image. But, then again we must think about the other side that led us to do evil. That is all I will say.

No, G♥d is perfect and so was man, until he,(he as in mankind or humankind), bowed down to the enemy. G♥d was, is, and always will be perfect and the example of Adam and Eve disobeying is good for us parents who have done everything to train their child up, only for them to fall away from what was taught to them.

HI JEN, I certainly am no expert on the bible & to me the Old Testament is really hard to understand but i think u have made a very good point in your thoughts of this. We are all God's children & he is our Father. hope u have a happy weekend. Give that sweet baby a hug from me.Our little one is going to be in her first pagent tomorrow[boo]. My son & ryan have taught her the awfullest smile to use, lol. She looks like a little monkey. T.J. is not to thrilled about pagents either.

An interesting discussion. I am a little confused about the question. You wnat me to answer the question as though I was The Hebrew-Christian God? What would make this very hard for me is the matter of time. Someplace in these teaching is the concept that God is all knowing, meaning he knows all that happened in the past and all that will happen in the future. Since the children he is creating have a limited time of existance, as God I would be experimenting, the duration of each child's life would be so short to me that my involvement with them would be little more than the involvement of any human with a mouse. Or even a fruit fly In other words it would be much more a science project than a emotional one. If you were looking for an emotionally involved God how could you describe this except as a monster. Anyone that would create humanity as it is, with starvation, pain and constant strugles throughout its history would be more the conception of the Devil then a Heavenly Father.

I go by the norm 'God of one's understanding'. That has saved me from taking part in any debates relating to religion. My understanding is that God is the Creator and expects us to bring Him in our life just as we would expect that from our children. I further want to say that God is lonely and therefore creates situations so that we bring Him in our life. I also believe that this whole process of religion is very complicated. One should live a life of morality and not be a nuisance to others. I am not sure if I have contributed to your topic in any way.

Hi, Jen.. Interesting discussion. We human beings often think of things from our own limited perspective, so we need to read and study the thougts of God in his written word, to be able to see things at least partly from His point of view. Long before the evil angels were cast out of heaven as the Revelation describes, their leader who was called Satan, was visiting the earth. He decieved Eve and Adam and tried to get Job on his side. But Job showed that he would not let anything stop him from serving God. The different ways God has dealt with mankind has followed His plan to teach us and show that Satan was wrong when he thought he could get all to his side. The strict laws of Israel showed that we cannot do things perfectly and that we will need God's plan to save us from sin and imperfection. God later continued teaching us through his son, Jesus. But the plan to teach us and save those of mankind who are willing to listen and obey God, was ready from the beginning. We get a clue in Genesis 3:15 and it all becomes clearer when we read all the books in the Bible.. God appears his plan to us if we are humble enough listen and learn.

You came to the conclusion I did. Like a first time parent , G-d thought all He had to do was say No , Don't do that and Adam and Ever would obey. Wrong! And He got angry and it took until Jesus came down and got about half the ideal audience for Him to be over it.

I really don't care for the topics of religion or politics. I think that Adam and Eve are complete contriditions of what he was trying to accomplish. I think all these stories are mere fables and have not a bit of truth in them at all. Look at Lilith. What a question mark. She is the vampire's blood soked Goddess. The Bible isn't even complete. SOme books were not allowed in. So how can we really believe in any part of it? I am an agnostic and have ALOT of questions. Adam and Eve is the least of them. But, if it were true, and I preface this to say I DON'T THINK SO! But if it were I think the story of Adam and Eve has alot more to say than just the first children but more like women's wisdom over man and knowing right from wrong. Repercussions or teaching the first man how it was to be. And maybe this God of yours knew more than you seem to give him credit for. Just maybe he had a much deeper roll for them to play.

If I am allowed to ask, what was the book you chose to read? "Just because" and "how would you feel" aren't very good explanations for why God did what He did. We are created in God's image. God is a spirit being and so are we.

Seems unlikely given the fact that the angels, which existed long before humans, had basically the same situation. Lucifer himself, was in one of the highest positions in Heaven, the Angel of light that stood over the very thrown of G-d. Yet G-d didn't want robots with the Angels either, and thus gave them freedom of choice as well, and as we now know, 1/3 of all Angels followed Lucifer into rebellion against G-d. I would expect that G-d knew that giving Humans the same freedom He gave the Angels, would have the same result, namely that some would reject him. So why would G-d do this knowing some would reject him? Well, I would guess because he doesn't need robots. Robots are not real love. There's a South Korean Iphone App "Honey It's Me!". A phone app girl friend, tells you how much she loves you, and all kind of wacky stuff. Question: How much real love is there in the robot girlfriend? What if you could make a real human boyfriend or girlfriend that told you how much they loved you all the time. Not because they wanted to, but because you programmed them to. Would that be real love? Of course not. G-d could have made human robots, programmed to worship constantly, automatically. But that's not love, that's a robot. Instead He wanted real love. But unfortunately the only way to have real love, is to have a choice, and choice means some will choose to reject.

I am bemused and confused by the bible. The old testament, as you say, is hard and vengeful, the new is happy and positive. If it was today the old Testament would have been written by cormac McCarthy and the new would of been written by CS Lewis. I do not think i am made in gods likeness as i am a man and everyone with any sence knows god is a premenstral woman and as the saying goes.....God help us all!

We try to explain why GOD did this or that and many times , the answer is that we just can't understand him , we don't know much like he does. GOD's ways are a total mystery. Sometimes , we do try to see things from a human point of view , trying to figure out what would we do if we saw a certain situation. GOD is not a human but maybe we still have some things in common because GOD created Adam in his own image. That is a good reason for us to try to understand and explain GOD's reaction to things. We try to understand what he considers , what he feels , just like a human being does in his life when facing a situation. About GOD that less and less interacts with the people , you are right , the more progress in reading the bible , one can see less and less interaction of GOD with his people. So , maybe , it did take him time to see that human free will is impossible to control totally. If people learn to love and care for each other , respect each other and help each other , no punishes will be necessary. I think you got good points here about how much GOD is like a human being. Please , define what is an imperfect emotion or define what is a perfect emotion. Our emotions cause many problems in our life and in the bible , emotions caused people to do bad things that GOD didn't allow them to do. Yes , we are created in GOD's image , but , not totally. Our emotions are not exactly like GOD's "emotions". (emotion is not just a feeling , it is something that causes us to do things).

Yes, God created us in his image and said Muhammad, peace be upon him in the Hadith : "God created Adam in His own image, sixty cubits tall"

Wow I have never thought of it that way! I think everyone grows...and maybe He did too..after all we are created in His image so this might be true!

Hi JenInTN, I find this discussion interesting and different from most discussions in religion. If it's true that we are God, as some people now believe, it certainly makes sense that our first experiences in the physical plane would be like a learning experience. I think that many people today have a difficult time in believing in some kind of superior being living somewhere above the clouds and that is why there are so many atheists in the world.Our ideas have changed a lot from old testament times when people thought that God told them to commit genocide. Maybe God is experiencing the things that we are experiencing, not that God is changing but our ideas of reality are changing. Blessings.

It is this sort of question that makes is so blinding obvious that there is not actually a "god" and all references to such a being are just men saying either what they believe or what they want others to believe for their own ends. For instance when Moses ordered his men to slaughter all their prisoners, men, women and children only keeping alive any virgins for their own use of course he said that is what god wanted. It is all a big con job

The verse that you read which says "We are created by his image" is not literal and this is symbolical. It symbolize how people be live with God image. Meaning to be like God, in action, heart and mind. Doing good in particular... But people failed to follow into that image which God,want us to be. People are live being hard headed and still committed sin. This is the reason why God, make a covenant to his people. But people still not follow what the covenant all about. Then God, decide to give warning to those people who are always committed sin and make way end the world by floods. After the floods God, make again a covenant to his people. But still people being hard headed and now make a promise that end this world with fire. This still not happen but the time soon come I think because all the prophecy that written in the bible is already fulfilled...

I've been raised to believe the 'just-because' reasoning. So it would be hard for me, and yet interesting if this 'just-learning-too' idea were true. It would require much rationalization on my part. Although I would agree that the New Testament does move on to a lesser interaction, so there maybe something there. Tsk...tsk...tsk...

God never changes. The changes you see are in man's understanding of God. Think about it: when you were young, 'big' meant 'boss of you'; now 'big' means something more like 'powerful, but only boss-of-you if you and "big" serve one another.'