IN GOD’S IMAGE

1. The series suggests that God did not create a copy of Himself in man. Could God have created a copy of Himself? If He created an exact duplicate, wouldn’t that deny God Himself?

2. It has been said that if a cow could think about God, that God would be in the form of a cow. How does this statement affect your understanding of “In God’s Image”? In whose image – ours?

3. In a footnote on the last post, it is suggested that we always picture our creator as larger than us, but it could be smaller, such as bacteria raising us for food. What about a creator who looks absolutely nothing like us and has created us to be functional in our universe? How does this idea fit with the concept of evolution? In His image could mean that the characteristic we possess is the ability to evolve. How does that affect the concept of humans being “masters of the earth (see Gen 1:28) since all animals have the ability to evolve?

4. The series identifies several traits (such as a sense of humor) which humans possess and which animals do not possess, at least to the same degree of complexity, which are based on imagination. Can you think of other traits?

5. The series suggests that our imagination is developing and evolving. Where do you see this going? Do you think there is an end to it?

6. Modern science is discovering new planets that can support humanlike-life (in some cases, the planet may even be more conducive to humanlike-life than ours). How do you think the entities on those planets picture God? Do you think they even have an entity similar to our “God”?
7. The Bible states, quite definitively, that God created humans. However, we are now on the threshold of creating life, either through cloning or by engineering the gene model. In this way, we might even void the concept of natural selection. For example, we can engineer out the ultra-aggressive genes, increase life span, make some people stronger than others, smarter than others, handsomer than others, etc. Do you agree? Is this too close to our being God? If we do take the steps, do you think we are ready and capable of handling the responsibility?
8. The series “Imagination and Moral Responsibility” discusses cooperation among unrelated individuals as one of the inventions which allowed humans to become the dominant species (i.e., exercise dominion over the entities created in Genesis). Do you think cooperating with unrelated individuals requires imagination? Is imagination a sine quo non for such cooperation?
9. The series describes an incident reported in Leviticus 10:1-2, in which God destroyed Aaron’s sons Nadob and Abihu. What was their offense? Leviticus 10:1 mentions “alien fire”. What is “alien fire” and why was it so offensive to God that he killed these two men?