You creationists, you apes, you God-fearin, knowledge-hatin drag-chutes-on-humanity, what hubris is this?
"Humans are created in God's image, and are to be like Him and superior to all else on earth".... Really? What nonsense. Prideful, tail-swallowing nonsense. And, like many other similarly insidious examples of prideful, tail-swallowing nonsense, some of us just lap it up.
I guess some people like to feel superior to the things/beings/people around them. For my part, I see myself and all other human beings as miracles, every one. But I see an orangutan as a miracle also. I see my little puppy dog as a miracle. Hell; I see bacteria as a miracle, both the ones making my armpits stink and the ones currently digesting my breakfast for me. Not miracles in the sense that God wrinkled her nose and they appeared, but miracles in the sense that, no matter their explanation, we are blessed to be a part of them.
Life itself is a miracle. As is its only known cradle and mother, earth.
But those are big concepts, aren't they? It's a lot simpler to believe that you have a leg-up in the miracle department; that you are especially miraculous and need not concern yourself with the not-miracles around you. Makes you feel powerful, and safe.
Hubris. And worse, it's blasphemy. At least by my standards it is. Rank. Explicit. Blasphemy.
My response is below the fold.
Human beings? .... Divine form? ..... Bwahahahathehellusay?
Is that why we so often grow into murderous fiends?
Is that why women (you know, like the woman who gave birth to you) are such tragic characters in almost every page of our history?
Is that why millions of people die of starvation yearly, about 25,000 just today, while a few hundred control resources rivaling that of the entire developing world?
Is that why military spending, i.e. procurement, development and deployment of devices which kill people, accounts for well over 1/2 of government expenditures worldwide?
Is that why, even now, human beings live on this earth whose neighbors, and governments, treat them as less than human?
Is that why the bosses' vast fortunes are protected free speech, guarded like Fort Knox, while the laborers' meager pensions are expendable entitlements?
Is that why Dick Cheney gets a new heart while a 25-year-old kid is labeled "uninsurable" and dies of a viscious God-damned gum infection?
Is that why there are some among us who write off entire species, entire ecosystems, our global climate, because... $$?
What the hell kind of God is that if we are made to be like Him and walk in His steps? What kind of messed up example is it?
It looks like the behavior of a bunch of animals to me; the dirtiest of the damned dirty apes. Like it or not it's what we are. And, although savagery among us should always draw our ire, to deny its formative place within ourselves is to deny ourselves, and all the universe beside.
God does not lie.
Sometimes I'd rather be a gorilla.