Let God Be True (3)

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His ownimage; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1.26, 27
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his is like that
Human thinking is based entirely on analogies. We learn and know things by association, by recognizing that something is like something else. This, at least, is the argument of Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander in their book, Surfaces and Essences. They write, “the central thesis of our book – a simple yet nonstandard idea – is that the spotting of analogies pervades every moment of our thought, thus constituting thought’s core… We swim nonstop in an ocean of small, medium-sized, and large analogies, ranging from mundane trivialities to brilliant insights.”

Analogies work by comparison: This is like that. Poetry flourishes in analogies. We use analogies in everyday conversations. Today, for example, it may be “hot as blue blazes outside.” We may not know what “blue blazes” are, but we have a sense that they’re really, really hot. “She’s sharp as a tack,” we say about someone whose wit we admire; or “He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” the meaning of which we all understand.

Human beings live by analogies; we think along analogical lines. Because analogies form the way we think, the particular analogies we embrace determine how we live. The bigger the analogy, the more it dominates our life. So when those big analogies are false – when we insist on believing that something is like something else, when in fact it is not – it can be difficult to realize the truth about who we are and why we’re here.

An example from history
For example, during the days of the American Founding, African Americans were not considered to be real human beings. They were looked upon as somehow less than human, incapable of being educated or refined, and therefore good for nothing but hard manual labor. The United States Constitution only accorded them a status of 3/5 human being.  

Sadly, this view of African Ameicans was abetted by many people who, standing over the Bible rather than under it, manipulated Biblical teaching to support their view of those they chose to oppress for their own convenience.

Accordingly, our American forefathers treated Blacks like animals, to be owned, bred, sold and traded, and worked to death without any of the benefits of education, culture, freedom, or expression that all the real human beings were able to enjoy. Black people were not exactly animals, but they were like animals, and this false analogy led to tragic consequences for Blacks and Whites alike.

It was only when men like William Wilberforce and others began to object to this false way of thinking – this disastrous analogy – that people began to realize, as Josiah Wedgwood’s famous plaque insisted, that African Americans are men and brothers with all the rest of us, and that they should be free like everyone else. We’re still living with the disastrous social consequences of this way of thinking, and it’s likely to be a while before we all – White and Black alike – are able to overcome them.

An even more disastrous analogy
Even more disastrous than this, however, is the analogy which insists that human beings are more like animals than any other beings. Animal studies form the basis of much scientific research, both in the natural sciences and the social sciences. “We’re like monkeys or ants or bees or starfish” researchers insist, and so, if only indirectly, we teach our children to take their behavioral cues from animals. Animals tell us the truth about who we are, our teachers insist, and we politely nod and head off to do whatever human animals do, according to the patterns and practices discernible especially among our primate “brothers and sisters.”

This is a cruel joke. Rather, a cruel Lie. The evolutionary view of human beings operates on a false analogy, and thus strips people of their essential core spirituality, as C. S. Lewis argued so powerfully in The Abolitioin of Man.

The Scriptures teach that human beings are a kind of “in-between” creature. We’re neither gods nor angels, and we are not animals. We are the image-bearers of God. As such, we’re more like God than animals, and we will realize our true fulfillment and greatest happiness only when we think, feel, value, speak, and act like God – not like animals. To achieve full humanness, we must look to God, compare ourselves with God, and aspire to know and be like God.

Take God out of the equation and point people to animals – to a world “red in tooth and claw,” as evolutionists like to put it – and you reduce people’s aspirations for grace, for good works, for nobility and civility, and make us all content to compete, struggle, grunt, and grovel like the lowest beasts of the earth.

This is a lie, part of the larger Lie which will one day be blasted to smithereens against the Rock of God’s truth.

For reflection
1.  Should it trouble us as believers that this false analogy comparing people with animals has become institutionalized in America’s public schools? Explain.

2.  Do churches in any way abet this false analogy? Explain.

3.  Meditate on Hebrews 12.1 and Colossians 3.1-3. Do you see why focusing and meditating on Jesus is so important to realizing our full humanity? Explain.

Next steps – Conversation: Would it make a difference if more people began to know about Jesus and His way of life, than about the latest research on primate social behavior? Ask an unbelieving friend or co-worker about this matter, and follow the conversation wherever it leads.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Let God Be True, is available as a free PDF download, suitable for individual or group use (click here).

Help us discover the state of people’s understanding of God’s truth. Watch the brief video explaining our Understanding the Bible Questionnaire (click here). Then download the Questionnaire and begin using it with the people in your Personal Mission Field. Be sure to come back to the website and record the answers you receive. We’ll update you from time to time on what we’re learning. Get an overview of the truth of the Christian worldview by registering for our free, online course One in Twelve: An Introduction to Christian Worldview (click here).

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.