Imago Dei
From Summa Bergania
by David Bergan - March 14, 2005
When the question is asked, “Does God exist?” my answer is this:
Humans recognize and evaluate many different kinds of abstract qualities. They are basic principles that guide our daily lives whether we want to acknowledge them or not. Often they are so familiar that we take them for granted and never stop to think about where they come from. But their peculiar existence does raise some questions about the uniqueness of being human and it will have consequences on your worldview. Therefore, consider all of the following and develop for yourself the best explanation.
1) Logic
Humans understand logic. Anybody reading this paper will be able to tell the difference between a valid reason and a bogus reason. If someone said “I do not want to go for a walk today because it is raining,” they would be well understood. But someone who said, “I do not want to go for a walk today because lizards are reptiles,” would be met with a blank stare and raised eyebrow. We all understand logic, but what is it? It is not something natural. The wind, the rocks, the ocean, and the dogs have no clue as to what is rational and what is not. Logic is not something we can see, hear, feel, taste, or smell. Yet we know that it exists, because we all understand it. We use it argue, to persuade, to plan, to think, to accept one set of beliefs, and to reject another. The fact that you have read this far and understood what I have written about is proof that logic exists. But logic is not natural. And logic is not individual. There is no such thing as “my logic” and “your logic.” We cannot say that it is “your logic” to stay inside because lizards are reptiles, because that is not logical at all. And finally we know that the rules of logic apply the same everywhere. The statement about lizards is just as illogical here as it is in China, Afghanistan, or the next galaxy. Therefore, logic is not natural, logic is not individual, and logic is omnipresent.
2) Math
Math is nothing more than the logic of numbers. If you had difficulty understanding what I meant about logic being universal, it might be easier to understand in the context of arithmetic. If one person adds two numbers, he will get the same result as any other person adding up those two numbers. And if he does not, then he is simply wrong. There is no sense in saying that one person can believe that 5 + 16 = 43, while another believes it is 21. Imagine the ludicrous situation that would result if you went to one store and bought a hammer for $16 and a screwdriver for $5 and paid $21 total, while at another store you bought the same items at the same price and paid a total of $43. How could the IRS audit any taxpayer if the taxpayer could just invent his own math? But as obvious as math is to us, it is certainly not natural. It is not made up of matter. It has no bearing on the wind, the rocks, the ocean, the plants, and most animals. Therefore, like logic, math is not natural, math is not individual, and math is omnipresent.
3) Justice
By now you may start to notice a pattern to my argument. I am throwing various abstract concepts out in the open and showing that they are not natural, not individual, and omnipresent. I’ll save some redundancy if you just keep that idea in mind. Next is justice, which I will define over-simply as knowing the standard of right and wrong. Justice does introduce a lot more gray area than math and logic, but the basic principles are just as fixed. Yes, I will admit that there is some cultural relativism to account for. In America is perfectly acceptable for women to drive cars while Saudi Arabia will not issue women drivers’ licenses. If your intent is to find differences between cultures, you can make an impressive list of such things. However, if your intent is to find similarities, you will come up with a much longer list… although not as impressive because nobody is impressed with the things that are taken for granted. For example, all of the following are considered immoral all across the world: Recklessly driving cars over children. Stealing for personal gain. Rape. Dishonesty. Betraying people who trust you. Killing innocent people. Chasing old ladies down the street with a baseball bat. Being irresponsible. Breaking out the windows of someone else’s property just for the thrill of it. Extortion. Torture. Blackmail. Gossip. And so on.
Of course, even though it is clear that such things are considered immoral across the globe, they still do happen. And sociologists will always have a hard time explaining the twisted peculiarities of certain civilizations to ‘go along’ with blatant atrocities like Nazi Germany endorsing racism, or ancient Carthage’s weekly sacrificing of infants to their god ‘Moloch’. But note that the sociologists have to explain these sorts of instances because they are the exceptions that contradict the rule of orderly civil behavior. Sociologists don’t spend hours of research to fill their journals with explanations for why the Roman Empire outlawed stealing and murder or why they thought it the mark of a brave man to defend his country. But they do seek explanations for why the Romans accepted as much prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality as they did.
Like math and logic, justice is also unique to human beings. It is not natural, and has no effect on any creature or mineral except the rational ones. It is not individual. I cannot declare stealing acceptable for me and be acquitted in court. And it is omnipresent. The same basic moral principles are found all across the Earth, and if we were to take a group on a spaceship to Mars, the same principles would apply there as well.
4) Love
Just as knowing what is right and wrong is innate and universal for humans, so is knowing love. Love surely isn’t observed as much as justice… even in situations (like marriage) that are supposed to be built on it. Whether you are in America, Germany, or China, it can move your heart and wet your eyes to see white-collar worker step out of his daily routine to dine one-on-one with a homeless man. Who can resist smiling when they hear of a husband voluntarily sacrificing his much-anticipated weekend with his friends to tend to his family at home because his wife started feeling ill? Just as the principles of right and wrong are evident in all places, so are the principles of going beyond them into the realm of self-sacrifice. And again, the wind, the rocks, the ocean, the plants, and most animals are all deaf to such principles.
5) Virtue
Similar to the last two, but slightly different is virtue. Virtue consists in identifying the characteristics that make up a good person, whereas justice and love are qualities applied to specific situations. For virtue, consider the variety of answers we would get if we asked people of all nations to describe the traits of a fictitious ‘greatest human being.’ My guess is that the accounts would be surprisingly similar. He (or she) would be intelligent, courageous, wise, just, patient, industrious, clean, courteous, gentle, self-disciplined, honest, and inspiring. Because of differences in personality there will be difference in the imaginative greatest person. Some people might want him to be more talkative, and some less talkative, but surely no one would think that he would talk for the sake of annoying people, brag excessively about his deeds, or be verbally abusive. This is the sense in which I find virtue to be universal. And again (you knew it was coming), virtue also has no influence on the wind, the ocean, rocks, plants, and most animals. Not natural, not individual, and omnipresent.
6) Organization
Nature knows nothing of organization. The second law of thermodynamics states that nature only acts towards disorganization, at least on the whole. But I’m not interested in a discussion of what kinds of complexity nature can produce on its own as much as I’m interested in the fact that nothing in nature recognizes organization besides humans. That’s what is amazing. Even if nature could whip up a super-computer out of raw minerals, a tornado, and some lightning bolts, there isn’t a monkey, a dolphin, or an elephant on Earth that would admire that accomplishment. Unless a human stumbled upon it, it would disintegrate back into raw materials without any recognition.
But I don’t mean to only include molecular organization, find me a dog or a monkey that appreciates the way I have my closet organized. Pants on the left, followed by summer t-shirts, then summer collared shirts, then summer dress shirts. Next it’s the winter shirts (casual, then dressy), and a couple sport coats. Pretty basic… just about any person on the planet could arrange my closet the way I like it, but I don’t trust a single orangutan or gorilla with that duty. Organization is not natural, not individual, and omnipresent.
7) Cleanliness
They say that pigs are clean animals. Yet they roll around in the mud all day… Dogs shake the water out of their coat. Apes pick (and eat) bugs out of each other’s hair, while rhinos have birds do that job for them. The higher animals show trace signs of cleanliness, just as they show trace signs of other human characteristics (language, logic, creativity, personality, etc.). But show me a rock or a tree that tries to keep itself clean. Show me a dog that’s courteous enough to wipe its paws on the mat before tracking on the carpet. Nature fundamentally is totally indifferent to cleanliness… it acts as though it doesn’t know what it is at all. Yet all humans can recognize it, and every one at least want enough cleaning done so that they can lie in their own bed. We all prefer clean, just as we all prefer honesty, but that doesn’t mean all people are clean and honest. Recognizing cleanliness is not natural, not individual, and omnipresent.
8) Beauty
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I’ve never met a person who though that goat entrails were pretty. Male/female beauty is highly subjective, usually with characteristics of virtue playing into the perceived ‘beauty’ of a person. But it is easy to tell that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is more beautiful than a toddler’s crayon scratches on a wall. Easy for us, anyway. I haven’t met a cat or a chimp that had a preference, or an owl that opined on the majesty of surrealistic art in comparison to impressionistic work. Which leads me to believe that beauty, too, is not natural, not individual, and omnipresent.
9) Language
Lots of things make noise, but how many communicate? About a dozen, and again they are only the higher animals and people. Again consider the difference between them and us. The most sophisticated communication that I’m aware of (outside our species) is the waggle-dance that bees do. Scientists watching a bee-hive determined that one bee can communicate the location of a flower bed to the other bees by shaking its abdomen in certain patterns. That’s pretty remarkable, but a spit in the ocean compared to the amount of information that humans can communicate to one another shaking our abdomens. The depths of the human languages are extraordinary, capable of communicating so much more than the location of the nearest grocery store. Simply consider the amount of information contained in a 50 cent newspaper, that we buy today and throw away tomorrow. Every sentence in the cheapest of our literature stands as an unbridgeable gap between humans and bees.
Nature itself has no interest in communication apart from the life forms that can. And while words have to be translated from one language to another, the concepts are universal. What I call ‘water’ the Spanish call ‘agua.’ But I will certainly be committed to a mental hospital if I pointed to a piece of iron and called it either water or agua. Language, too, is not natural, not individual, and omnipresent.
Conclusion
So, then, here are 9 things that are unique to humankind. My list is by no means exhaustive. I can think of several other, less philosophical things that humans specialize in (romance, political parties, scientific investigation, etc.). But the point is to consider all of these things that are unique to humankind and ask the question, “What is the best explanation for all of these things?”
To me, 9 things that are all ‘not natural, not individual, and omnipresent’ implies that these things are therefore super-natural. If they are not natural and they are everywhere, what else could they be? They always exist wherever we go, they never slumber or sleep, they never change, never bend, and never compromise.
The best explanation for me is that humans alone recognize these things because we are made in the image of God. God exists, and we are connected to Him in these 9 areas… and consequently connected to each other. Because we can both ascertain His logic, I can correct yours. Because He is love, I can reflect His love to other people. Without God, we should never have known of these 9 things at all.
