This section of posts in the God Series explores the meaning of the term “In His Image” and then offers an alternative meaning and discusses the implications of that alternative meaning.

IN HIS IMAGE

Review of previous posts

The previous post discussed attributes of man’s imagination.

Preview of this post

This post continues the investigation of the attributes provided to man by his imagination.

Complex memory

As applied to actions and consequences, in order to fully utilize his imagination, man will have to have some data regarding consequences in order to be able to form a mental image of these potential consequences. The highly developed imagination of humans gave, and gives, humans the ability to form mental images of complex and complicated events. This skill may have given impetus to an ability to remember events so they can be integrated into the highly developed imagination. The more the imagination forms mental images, the more events that should be stored. The human mind grew to accommodate such skills. Therefore, man also was given a memory and developed and grew that memory so he will be able to remember past attempts at imagining consequences associated with an act or past attempts at understanding what another is thinking and the results of those past attempts so that future attempts at these operations will be undertaken with some idea of the outcome and consequences associated with a choice. Since humans are capable of imagining complex events, the memory of complex events was developed. The complex memory of humans resulted.

While all animals have some memory, none has a memory that is sophisticated enough to remember extremely complex thoughts. Merely remembering some minor details of an event is just a step above instinct. As mentioned above, instinct is basically driven be self-preservation. Animals are generally driven by self-preservation instincts and only rarely, and then only on a rudimentary level, display other instincts. On the other hand, however, humans often take actions which are not primarily driven by self-preservation^[1] and such actions generally require a complex memory which can be combined with a complex imagination so that actions are not driven primarily by instinct or by self preservation.

Imagination is required for leadership

With regard to animals, man uses his imagination to lead them. Animals will make mistakes but since they do not have an imagination they will make a similar mistake if the situation changes (while they may not make the same mistake when faced with the identical situation, they do not have an imagination which is sophisticated enough to translate action/consequence connection from one situation to another, perhaps entirely different, situation or imagine how a present situation can be altered to produce a desired result). Therefore, it is up to man to lead and guide animals away from making undesirable decisions. Man will have learned for the animal. The difference between man and animals is imagination and man’s sophisticated imagination which can form mental images of complex events and apply the lessons learned from one situation to another, perhaps totally unrelated, situation.

If he is to fulfill the leadership role with regard to the other living entities God created in Genesis, man needs more than a mere survival instinct. He needs an ability to envision which consequences might be connected to a particular act so he can either take or avoid the act himself and/or guide the animals to either take or avoid an act.  All the living entities created by God in Genesis must live together and, as such, must co-exist in a manner which allows all the entities to move forward and progress so the unit created in Genesis can progress. Since the living entities created by God before man were given only survival skills, this objective requires some entity to serve as a leader to direct these entities in the best and most efficient method of achieving progress.  Such a leader will need special skills.

Preview of the next post

The next post continues the investigation of the attributes provided to man by his imagination.

^[1] While some might argue that even actions of self-sacrifice are merely forms of self-preservation as viewed as acts of preserving one’s lineage or descendants, such a view is not applicable to animals since the view requires a sophisticated imagination to visualize the present act of self-sacrifice as benefitting others, perhaps unborn, in the future.