What does it meaning to be the image of the Lord

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Pathway2

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Evolution is the theory of Natural selection where a dominate and recessive gene is dedicated for the formation of the individual from the ancestor (Animal) who which Human’s have evolved from, how would this affect Adam and Eve for they changed based on chance to survive? what would it mean to be mean to be made in the image of the LORD?
 
I think it has nothing to do with how we look. It has more to do with inheriting the qualities of God.
 
To use a legal phrase, I believe that you might be assuming facts not in evidence. “Evolution” as commonly understood is pure theory and far from proven. It is a circumstantial case with no directly connected physical evidence. As to “image”, from the Catholic Dictionary:
IMAGE. A representation or likeness of something. It corresponds to
“exemplar” and implies that one thing (the image) is both a reflection
and pattern of something else. In this sense the word has come to mean
an attitudinal or judgmental reaction toward a person, an institution, or a people. Thus we now speak of “image makers” or “image builders” to describe the use of publicity and propaganda to create or maintain a favorable impression before the public. (Etym. Latin imago, copy, likeness, image, picture; pattern, model.)
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I believe its a little deeper than that. According to the bible God is absolutely unique. There is no other like God. Considering having inherited some of the attributes of God we must also consider those attributes to not only be attributes of degree but also essentially different in likeness to Gods else God would only be superficially unique by degree whereas the bible considers God wholly unique. For instance one may be a sphere of certain roundness which approaches perfect roundness but the sphere which demonstrates perfect roundness isn’t wholly unique as a sphere except in its degree of roundness. Its characteristic of having roundness to a degree places it within the same category as a sphere who exhibits roundness to a lessor degree. God however is in a class completely by himself.
 
po18guy said:
It is a circumstantial case with no directly connected physical evidence.
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I don’t think this is entirely true. I believe evolutionary scientists have now observed some creatures which have demonstrably evolved within the period of record of being studied. At least by the defined standards of what it means to evolve.
 
Indeed, what we understand as love, however good our understanding may be, is still merely a human approximation to God’s perfect love, and likewise for God’s other attributes.
 
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By their rules - but they are agenda-driven. In my lifetime, I have seen all manner of science debunked.

Still, if God is the impetus for any changes in created beings, that is consistent with Church teaching. It is not - never has been - a case of “us versus them.” That is a red herring, a canard , an artifice thrown up to divide.

Who was it that developed the scientific method?

Yes, that’s right.
 
Greetings,
po18guy said:
By their rules - but they are agenda-driven
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I hope you don’t mean to imply that the Roman Church isn’t agenda driven? Who among us hasn’t fallen prey to some sort of agenda driven stimulus? Be that as at may though, scientific rules are scientific rules. It was science that defined the terms of evolutionary theory and thus by making comment upon evolutionary theory we work within a scientific frame of reference. Yes yesterdays science can be debunked tomorrow given mans finite capacities however science has been generally shown to be progressive at a pretty steady rate. After all God created a reasonable world and a reasoning creature within that world. No conflicts there.
po18guy said:
Still, if God is the impetus for any changes in created beings, that is consistent with Church teaching. It is not - never has been - a case of “us versus them.” That is a red herring, a canard , an artifice thrown up to divide.
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I’m afraid that even though cases such as Galileo’s has been much abused by both sides of the issue…ultimately it was a showdown between world views. Clerical and liturgical opinion at the time clearly show a preference for Church opinion over scientific reasoning and where Church opinion conflicted with new scientific reasoning the Church won.
po18guy said:
Who was it that developed the scientific method?

Yes, that’s right.
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Not sure what you mean? Some scholars say the early predecessor “father” of the scientific method was Aristotle. Not a Catholic in any sense of the word. Some scholars say the modern father of the method was Sir Francis Bacon- An Anglican not a Catholic either. What agenda have you been taught?
 
Respectfully, I understand what your saying. I just don’t think you understand what it means to be the only member in a unique class. God is such an entity. My spherical example gives you a reason why our attributes simply cant be finite extensions of the infinite capacities of God. For instance you may say…we have consciousness and free will and so does God but hard as it may be to comprehend our Conscious free will cannot in any way be compared to Gods if the entity we call God is to retain its absolutely unique status. Its like trying to imagine an object in the fifth dimension. We simply don’t have the mental equipment to do it and so we incorrectly simplify to our abilities in our comparisons and thus we incorrectly become “mini Gods” in our thinking so to speak having Godlike attributes only on a finite but continuous extension from the infinite level of God. I cant even say we’re comparing apples to oranges here. Its more like we’re trying to compare apples to something that exists which nothing can be compared to except possibly in the negative.
 
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I suppose I need to clarify what I wrote in my previous posts. I completely agree with you and I apologize that my posts were unclear. I agree that God is in a class of His own, completely beyond human comprehension. As I said in my last post, all of our attributes are flawed, earthly representations of God’s perfect attributes. When I said that, like God, humans are rational and have free will and the ability to love, I did not mean that humans are as rational, as free, or as perfectly loving as God. I simply meant to illustrate that humans do have earthly versions of these traits. As I mentioned earlier, this is significant because plants and animals do not have any form of these traits. God has only bestowed them on us humans.

Fr. Charles Grondin recently wrote on this topic for Catholic Answers and expressed everything I wished to say in my previous posts. He said, “We are made in the image and likeness of God because we can love, create, and truly choose good. We are capable of truly and freely choosing to do good and to love. Human persons are not mere reactionary creatures but a creation that, like God, can choose to do good and to love one another. Human persons are also able to know and understand goodness and love. Human persons can mirror God in the manner we know, understand, love and do good.”

Again, I apologize for being unclear in my previous posts. I realize that I did not fully flesh out my ideas, as I supposed incorrectly that others would know what I meant in saying that humans share some attributes in common with God. I will delete my previous posts, as I feel that they were insufficient explanations of what it means to be made in God’s image.
 
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The Church is divinely instituted. If you do not believe in the divine, in the transcendent, then nothing anyone says here will have any meaning to you. That much is very clear.
 
Thank you for your posts…they are reflective and most welcome. I believe we have a same understanding. I’m still not sure this understanding is the correct one however and I’m assuredly misrepresenting my alternative thought process. I will chew on what you have said and if I clarify further my own thinking, integrating it into what you have said I will try. Again thank you for giving me something to think upon further. Blessings always.
 
I believe in the Christian divinity as much as can be or has been presented through scriptural revelations however I’m failing to grasp exactly how your response is relative to what I have posted concerning your earlier post. Perhaps your can further clarify for me.
 
It’s true that it’s difficult to contemplate God and the mysteries of our faith…I sometimes wonder if my understanding of God is completely incorrect. In a way, it probably is 😂 God is so amazing and I’ll never be able to grasp just how wonderful He is.
 
Take solace in the fact that you are not alone in your incomprehension of God.
 
Pathway2 said:
Evolution is the theory of Natural selection where a dominate and recessive gene is dedicated for the formation of the individual from the ancestor (Animal) who which Human’s have evolved from, how would this affect Adam and Eve for they changed based on chance to survive? what would it mean to be mean to be made in the image of the LORD?
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evolution in the purely scientific understanding, would have us coming from apes.

Creation otoh, when God said, let us create man in our image and likeness Adam is a completely unique creation. AND Jesus, 2nd person of the Blessed Trinity, incarnates with human nature and became man, the new Adam.

As far as made to the image and likeness of God

How Are We the 'Image and Likeness of God'? | Catholic Answers

Jesus is God. Not the Father, but God the Son. Jesus became man. He has a body like us. Before all creation, God knew everything in advance. Therefore God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) always knew this would happen
 
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