From: Ron (adsl-63-196-5-167.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net)
Subject: Re: RELIGION=CULT=ANTICHRIST
Date: June 12, 2001 at 10:34 pm PST

In Reply to: Re: RELIGION=CULT=ANTICHRIST posted by Alan O'Donnell on June 11, 2001 at 10:06 am:

What a response! Now you've gotten to the core of the argument: "Man made in the image of God". Who wrote the Bible? A dog? A dolphin? And from what social class did the authors come? Who were the only people who could write at the time it was written? If man is made in the image of God, does that assertion presuppose that there IS an image of God and, therefore, that the image is available for view? Then where is it? Put another way: If we as a species mirror the image of God, where is the image that we mirror? It must surely be God itself that forms that image. Where is it? Is God then our size and therefore hiding among us? If you accept the assertion (reasonable) that we are comprised of identifiable races, of what race is this elusive God. And finally, if God therefore appears as we appear, is God not immortal? Why then if we and God share the same appearance and thus form, are we mortal? MANKIND CLAIMS COMMON FORM WITH GOD FOR ANTHROPOCENTRIC SEPARATION FROM OTHER SPECIES AND NATURAL LAWS(or at least Western mankind). But is this reasonable and does it appear that mankind evolved from other species? What do you think? If so, then the form of God that is the "image" of God did also. Accept that and it must follow that the species from which man evolved must have been also the species that reflected the unevolved God at that period in history. Chimps!!! We know that other animal species have and use language(dolphins, birds, etc. and I assert that if we tried to communicate in the language of a particular species they would communicate with us(check out the horse wisperer's success with wild horses!!) When are we as a species going to recognize that we are all interrelated? We are all subject to natural laws. We are all capable of irrational behavior and emotions (other animals feel and cry and emote as we do and are capable of modifying their environment to suit their purposes). That emotional nature can result in subjective judgement and conclusions that seem to be justified for our purposes and therefore technological dominance and modification of our natural environment to it's ultimate destruction. So what is so priviledged about human beings that we think we can destroy our environment and thereby the environment of the other species with which we share this spaceship Earth because our "technology" will put it all right in the end since we "share our image with that of God"? Sure! Right! Dinosaurs! Bunk!
Mankind as a species is a part of, not apart from, Nature, and must learn to live in harmony with it, period.