God made in the image of Man ?

Learning Point No 353

God creates man in his own image. Therefore, be this figurative or literal, man is capable of the highest good. Man can be Godly like the Buddha and saints. That in a way speaks well of Man. 

But the problem is that Man conceptualizes God in the image of Man and attributes to God the same attributes of Man himself. That is not right. 

Man wants to be recognized. Thus the good God is also projected as wanting allegiance, subservience and recognition all the time. 

Man can be angry if slighted and thus Man portrays God as angry and wrathful if slighted. 

Man can be jealous and God too is projected as a jealous God. 

This is perhaps just plain odd and an attempt by Man to be recognized as perfect and alright even if he is not so. 

If God is like that, then it cannot be that bad if man too is like that. It may well even be good. 

Man is made in the image of God. Subconsciously, man wants to say he is alright and still Godly so long as God has the same attributes as man. 

So is it the case of God made in the image of Man or Man made in the image of God? 

The Chinese of old said thus.  "As in Heaven so also on Earth and as on Earth, so also in Heaven." This was in the days of the emperors and dynasties. 

Thus God is none other than The Pure August Jade Emperor Yu Huang Shang Ti. Doesn't this ring a bell? There is the emperor above and the emperor here below just as in the good old days of the dynasties. 

In the East, people in China in the old days would shudder at the mention of the emperor and never even dared to mention the emperor in their social interactions. They too regarded God the Jade Emperor in like manner. He is to be feared and the lives of men are at his discretion. 

Likewise in the ancient West, in the days of Roman Emperors, the people then had to appease God the way they appeased the lords of the Roman Empire. They lived in morbid fear of the emperor, be him the human kind or the One above. 

This culture of fear and total subservience has been carried on to this day in some religious circles. Isn't this not much different from the fear of thunder and lightning as in the days of cave dwellers?  

Men must be so respectful of God to point of fear. Being frozen in fear or God fearing is strangely considered as a virtue but then men will no longer be as logical and rational. 

It will also be easy for unscrupulous men to control and manipulate other men to do their bidding in the name of God. This would be discrediting God and tarnishing his image. 

This will be undesirable and lead to plundering of the limited wealth of  ordinary men and fostering of terrorist tendencies in the name of God.  

Do not ever make God out in the image of Man. But alas, history will repeat itself for religion like the flower will attract insects to it. Blame not the flower for the insects. This the lord saint Lord Bo Tien did say. 

Blame not God and saints for the unscrupulous  coming to religion and manipulating religion and the hearts of men. They put God in bad light and do disservice to God and men. God will forgive them though and this is the greatness of God. 

This culture of fear in religion is not the cup of tea of Ji Gong. Once in freezing cold of Winter, Ji Gong to the protests of his disciples took down the wooden image of Buddha and chopped it up as firewood to keep his disciples warm. 

Ji Gong liberated men from fear, even fear of God and saints like Buddha. God and saints never want to instill fear in men. 

He did not conform to the rules of the monastery. He was ever carefree, eating meat and drinking wine. He irked the abbot till he was asked to leave but he cultivated the Way. 

What is important is what goes through the heart and not what goes through the gut or what one does to please other men or out of fear of reprisal.