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I am religious and believe in free will

70 (27.6%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

113 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (24%)

Total Members Voted: 249

[Orange Wizard]

There was the Transfiguration. That said, Jesus is not God the Father, who is the one being referred to with the can see/cannot see stuff.
The Father is not prescribed a physical form in that sense. With his interactions with the Jews, it was usually something along the lines of a pillar of fire, or a storm engulfing a mountain, or something similarly impressive.

[wierd]

It is the panoply of manifestations of the "Father" (the actual creator) that leads me to choose the "in his image" line's interpretation to be less "literal", and more "figurative."

For an analogy, let's say that we take the "stupid" way to make real, honest to goodness AI--  We slavishly emulate a humongous collection of neurons in software.  This develops a "Mind", that is "In our image"-- but does the computer look ANYTHING at all like us?  Hell no.  It is simply patterned after our own mechanisms for achieving consciousness. (Further, the high-level emulation versions that would soon follow afterward that don't require slavish chemical interaction level simulations would STILL be patterned after our image, but would be EVEN FURTHER abstracted away from how we physically operate.)

The Hebrew god does not have a specifically ascribed physical form-- It is rather stated multitudinous times that the "Father" is a spiritual being, and that we humans were created out of flesh, while he himself is not.  That's why the above "AI analogy" is apt.  We are a completely different format from what this divine creator is composed from-- but SOMETHING about us is patterned after it.  Given the rhetoric in the book or Revelation, and various other places in the bible about "Knowing him for you shall be like him" after achieving a spiritual form after the resurrection and judgment, it seems pretty obvious that the "ultimate" goal here is to turn humans into new "god lite" models, after beta-testing us in temporary organic shells, and running us through quality control. Basically.

The bible even goes so far as to outright say that the flesh is something that god does not desire, and is something that we wont be taking with us--- and that we actually need to willfully overcome the "temptations of the flesh" to pass said quality control testing.

The circumstantial evidence seems overwhelmingly against a literal "Hey! WE LOOK JUST LIKE GOD, LIKE, PHYSICALLY!!" type interpretation of that statement.  However, some people just can't seem to let it go for some reason that I can't for the life of me fathom.

[Arx]

The illusion of, yes, but the existence of an OOO God automatically invalidates free will.

Wait, aren't you chistian? I are confused.

Yes, but that's not to say I have to deny the fairly obvious.

What is important is that our predetermined actions are chosen to match our choice in that situation exactly. It's impossible to differentiate from free will, but the existence of ahe omniscient God immediately casts te future in stone, so clearly it's not actually free will.

[wierd]

(hilariously amusing aside)

Maybe "God" is a Schroedinger's cat.

Exists in ALL possible states simultaneously, until observed. That's why nobody dares to observe him, and likewise, how he knows everything about everything, regardless of the chosen outcome.

(More amusing aside--  It was recently shown, in the past 3 years anyway-- that entangled particles somehow "know" they are going to be observed IN ADVANCE of being observed, even when that observation is genuinely done at random, using a physical source of randomness, implying some level of omniscience (or at least prescience) to such entangled particles.)

[scrdest]

(hilariously amusing aside)

Maybe "God" is a Schroedinger's cat.

Exists in ALL possible states simultaneously, until observed. That's why nobody dares to observe him, and likewise, how he knows everything about everything, regardless of the chosen outcome.

(More amusing aside--  It was recently shown, in the past 3 years anyway-- that entangled particles somehow "know" they are going to be observed IN ADVANCE of being observed, even when that observation is genuinely done at random, using a physical source of randomness, implying some level of omniscience (or at least prescience) to such entangled particles.)

Not quite that impossible - I recall in my catholic RS hearing that God is extratemporal, and musing just how eldritch such a being would seem to any human who actually thought about that for a while.

[SirQuiamus]

Critter could have a thousand arms and legs and half-hundred heads and we'd still be "in its image". Could be florescent neon green, hair that extends miles, etc., etc., etc.

Maybe "God" is a Schroedinger's cat.

Not quite that impossible - I recall in my catholic RS hearing that God is extratemporal, and musing just how eldritch such a being would seem to any human who actually thought about that for a while.

Obligatory.

[Orange Wizard]

Obligatory.

What did I just watch

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I thought it was already established that god is of a different dimension because we know he's not in this one (or at least directly observable as a physical thing in this one)

[Helgoland]

Pope Francis has declared an extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy.
Has this been mentioned yet? It's kind of a big deal...

[Orange Wizard]

What is a Holy Year, exactly? The article also says it's "in the nick of time" for some reason.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Pope Francis has declared an extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy.
Has this been mentioned yet? It's kind of a big deal...

.... That was all gibberish to me .-.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Would that be equivilent to the Islamic requirment for a pilgrimage to Meca?

[Descan]

POH, the last one was in 2000 and there were four in the 20th century.

[Helgoland]

Would that be equivilent to the Islamic requirment for a pilgrimage to Meca?

Not at all - those pilgrimages are one of the five pillars of Islam, while the Holy Year is mostly fluff, to be honest.