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Was
the physical body we call "man" made in
God's image? Or is it that "human beliefs about
God were made in man's image?"
Ancient humans, like people today, also looked for answers to the
mysteries of life. Who am I? Where did I come
from? Why am I here. What happens after I
die? Who made this place I'm in? Why do people
die? What causes earth quakes, floods and the other natural
disasters? What
could I have possible done that was so bad that I got sent
here? I must have done something terrible. How do
I escape from all this grief, and all this misery and from all those big,
powerful animals that want to eat me? Life
in ancient days was dangerous, short, and filled with things that had no
explanation. Having no evidence to go on except what they
experienced, our ancestors still searched for
answers. They made up stories to answer the unanswerable
questions. These stories became legends. These legend,
along with what humans were still experiencing, became the basis of what we,
today, refer to as religious beliefs. Many present-day human beliefs
have been handed down to us, generation after generation for centuries with little or no
change. As an example, examine the beliefs humans have about
God. Humans
looked around and noticed that no matter which way they went the Earth appeared
to be flat. Of course, in had mountains and valleys, but these
seemed to be merely ups and downs on what appeared to be a flat
Earth. There was no visible end to this flat Earth; at least, nobody
ever reporting finding an end. Humans
looked up and, most of the time, saw bright sunshine and beautiful, white,
billowy clouds. They felt the sun's warmth and gentle
breezes. They saw the rains that fell and refreshed the land and
caused the plants to grow. They noticed that when some of
their fellow beings experienced what we, today, call near death experiences,
most reported rising up into a warm, inviting, welcoming light. They
people reported seeing friendly beings waiting there to greet them.
They concluded that good things came from above, and whoever lives up there must
be good. They wanted to go there. They
also notice that occasionally the earth they walked on did strange things. It shook violently and knocked things down. The
mountains sometimes made terrible noises and spewed our, smoke and fire
and brimstone. When whatever was down there below their feet became angry it killed
people and destroyed things. They conclude that bad thing came from
under the Earth's surface. They also concluded that whoever or whatever lived
down there must be bad and should be avoided. Nobody wanted to go
there. These
experiences along with the natural human impulse to go toward that which
felt good and away from that which felt bad were the inevitable foundations of
legends, myths, and beliefs. Humans started appealing to whatever it
was that was above them in the heavens to help them with life, to avoid their pain and to avoid whatever was beneath
their feet. Nobody knew exactly who or what was above or who or what
was below, but whatever was there controlled human life. Humans
appeared to be victims of circumstance. The
natural tendency was to translate the unknown into something
known. The image of whatever was above their heads evolved
into beliefs such as "God lives above the clouds in a place called heaven. The
image of whatever was below their feet evolved into beliefs such as
"Satan is below in hell." And naturally the descriptions
of God followed the beliefs and experience of the people of that
era. See the page titled: Imagine
a God.° So,
were these people actually describing God? NO. Why not?
Because whatever it is we call GOD,
is still the ultimate mystery of life.°
Instead, they created an image of God based on human beliefs.
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What
if the reverse were true? What if it was possible to create an image
of man based on the attributes of God. Religious leaders claim to
know what humans are, but are those claims accurate? We don't know
what God is or isn't, but we can we use some common ideas and create
hypothesis of what man might be if he were an image of God. Man
would be a creator. He would be non-physical. He would
have eternal life. He would be consciousness. He would
be a part of God. As one
of His/Her/It's tools for experiencing Earth, God
would very likely place a portion of his consciousness into a physical vehicle.
To experience life as humans know it,
He/She/It would probably need to block portions of His/her/its full
memory. If He/She/It did that, then God would be a
temporary dweller on Earth. Living a
life on Earth in a physical body would be an experience quite different from the
non-physical world. If God is everything, then humans, as pieces of
God, would be walking around inside of the grander concept we call God. God would very likely
enter into many bodies and come to Earth numerous times. All
this is speculation, but are any of these possibilities any less believable than
the present Christian beliefs about God? What does the
circumstantial evidence indicate? -- that man is a creator -- that
man is a non-physical being who enters and temporarily use a physical body to
experience life on Earth -- that life continues after the death of the physical
body --that man is consciousness -- that man is a part of God.
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All
this is nice, but so what? What do you do with this
information? The N.V.P. team recommends that you do nothing with it
except hold each of these two conflicting perspectives as
possibilities. Treat this information from the viewpoint of the
beginners mind.°
Neither accept it or reject it. Observe your life and see, hear, and
feel what fits into your personal experience.
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