The Image of God Poll

[bloom]

(adapted from the Harris Poll - http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=707 )

Which best describes your image of God :

[Deep13]

1. The other male related would probably be a sky or sun god. nt

[bloom]

2. Yeah - it could be anything like that. nt

[ixion]

3. lol...masculine/feminine is for mortals... I think God looks like the

Flying Spaghetti Monster!

[bloom]

4. People have suggested that He is male, also

with his noodley (sp?) appendage and all.

[greyl]

5. That's just patriarchal bias again rearing its homely head.

Plust, maybe some ignorance of the varieties of pasta and female appendages. ;)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. Well, yeah

and the two..um... meat balls.

[Ian David]

7. You beat me to it! n/t

[Buzz Clik]

6. Golden image of a goat.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. When the Bible said that God made us

in his image, if I were a literalist, I might argue that the image had more to do with in the image of His mind, or reason.

But I'm not a literalist, so I really have no idea.

[Zebedeo]

10. My understanding of "in His image"

is that we are like God in the sense that we are free moral actors. Each of us is an independent spirit who can make moral choices - unlike the animals, who have no such capability. I don't know anybody who thinks that "in His image" refers to physical appearance.

[bloom]

11. Quite a few people do

according to the Harris poll.

But even for those who think of "God"'s image as a spirit - where we are like that spirit what with our choices or souls or something - there is also - for Christians, anyway - that whole Jesus thing. God in a man and all.

So I expect that the people who answer, "A spirit or power that can take on a Female AND/OR Male form but is not inherently human" - that they are thinking of that.

[kwassa]

12. other, believe in God but have no image at all.

and I am a visual artist.

Of course, image can mean many things.

[Chulanowa]

13. Gods and goddesses can be anything they want.

Odin and Loki alone went in drag almost as much as Bugs Bunny :)

[jgraz]

14. "Do not believe in God" is not the same as "not sure"

Being "not sure" means that your beliefs may be as close to any religion as they are to atheism. In fact, being "not sure" could describe the belief system of every devout Christian in the world, since their faith acknowledges the impossibility of perfect knowledge of god.

[bloom]

15. Those 2 things were both on the Harris poll like that.

I added "Have no image" to the mix.

I don't think that the idea was that the 2 were the same - they were just given the same space as an alternative to the other choices.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

But God the Father chose a woman, Mary, to bear God the Son.

Most of the time, I think, the triune God does not appear as anything but is only spirit. Yahweh appeared to Moses as a burning bush so he can take various forms but His Son, Jesus, referred to Him as Father, suggesting that when he appears, he appears as a male most of the time. Jesus is a combination of male human and God, and presumably only appears in the human form he had in life on earth or as an invisible spirit. The Holy Spirit has appeared as a dove, sex not specified, and probably can change appearances. I seriously doubt any of them would appear as the DUer favorite Flying Spaghetti Monster, though. God has better taste.

[cosmik debris]

17. My image of God

Is the old hillbilly who made Ned Beaty squeal in "Deliverance"