A deeply embedded myth common to the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is that we, as humans, were made in the image of this Grand Creator of the entire Universe. This belief is firmly embraced by the Abrahamic religions. It may be even more cherished than the mistaken concept that we were placed here for a purpose. Our human egos, searching for reasons to make us feel important, take great comfort in the Biblical words that give us at least a semi-divine image. If we look like the Great Power that began the entire universe, there must be more than a resemblance there. Two creatures who look alike must share more traits between them than just looks. If the Grand Creator is all-powerful, then we must possess some degree of power also. If we look like the Grand Creator, we must, at least in some degree, have some command over the world and the Universe. If we look like the Primary Force of all things, we must be getting close to our ultimate goal of being like God. If we resemble the Genesis of all things, which exists forever, we understand how we, through devotion to cause, may also be given eternal life. If we look like God, there is a reason why we may be able to communicate with our God through prayer, and be granted favors or rewards, just for us. We derive, for these many reasons, great comfort in the concept that we look like the Divine, and He, She or It looks like us.
Although we can understand why this concept of identity with the Divine can have such great appeal to those who are true believers in these religions, this need does not make this belief rational. All we have to do is ask a simple question, “Does this make any sense?” Compelling reasons immediately appear, telling us that this concept is insane. It has as much veracity as a watercolor painting on paper left out in a raging rainstorm. All that is left after the storm are a few tinted shreds of paper hanging on the bushes. It is a wonderful myth. To accept it as fact, however, seems ludicrous.
The human species is a miniscule life form, existing in the cocoon of a planet 93 million miles away from our sun. Our constant nuclear blast gives us all the energy we need to survive, even at this tiny spot on its halo. Our sun is medium size, on a spiral arm of our galaxy, which contains billion of other stars, most of them bigger and hotter. Our galaxy is unimportant in comparison to the billions of known galaxies in Universe. How many other billions exist, we do not know. We have not been able to measure the extent of our Universe. We are, in other words, so insignificant a part of this universe, our insignificance cannot even be measured mathematically. For us to think that, in spite of our monstrous insignificance, we closely resemble the Great Power that began this entire vast universe, seems absurdly irrational.
The human capacity to be self-centered seems to be boundless. Although our importance in the grand scheme of the universe is infinitesimal, we don’t want to accept that. We don’t want to accept the overwhelming evidence that we are completely mortal. We don’t want to accept that we have only this one precious life, which comes and goes in a flash, in universe time. We want to think that we are really central to the reason why the universe exists, that we have power over the universe, and that we are immortal, if we play our cards right. Even this immense egocentricity is not enough for us. We also have to conjure up a Supreme Commander who looks just like us. Not only do we conceptualize the entire universe as revolving around us, we visualize the entire world as having a human face. The figure on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is collectively stamped on the minds and memories of the human species as an exact replica of the God Force that began the entire universe, which amazingly enough, is a replica of an adult male father figure in good health, wearing a beard, clothed in robes, who looks regal and wise.
We should not judge human anthropomorphism too harshly. It has served us well for many millennia. Our language often struggles to express what our minds understand, what we are feeling inside, and how we can convey those concepts to someone else in a way that they will understand. The human species as Homo sapiens has been here for only 400,000 years. Written language has only been present for 5500 years, and realistic art work less. One of the major ways we have compensated to relate our thoughts and feelings has been to put everything in human terms and human figures. Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck, Goofy, Bugs Bunny, Wiley Coyote and the Road Runner are all very human characters. The cartoons are full of humanistic animals doing very human things and thinking very human thoughts. We even have talking fleas and ants, and occasional parasites and bacteria utter a few appropriate words. Conceptualization of the Grand Force of the universe as a Grand father figure was the best that we could do when we began our God concepts. The magnificence of the Michelangelo paintings cannot be denied.
It also cannot be denied that the current concept of a Humanistic God is a cartoon character. It is a farce to believe that whatever began the universe looks like us. We gave up the Ptolemaic belief that the sun, moon and stars rotated around the earth over 300 years ago. Our God concepts have evolved too. We now know that there is not a personal totally good God who is taking care of us. The only Gods we see are the physical laws of the universe and the laws of probability. The only God that exists does not care, is both good and evil, and most certainly, even in our most vivid, wild imaginations, does not look anything like us.