Heston, Hudson, And Beatty: Images Of God?

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer

Ok, ok. But I thought of these human images when I heard that 18-year-old Junvey Balawing of the Phillippines, at 24 inches, has been proclaimed the shortest man in the world. And then my somewhat heretical mind thought of the words in Genesis: “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him…” So I learned that God looked like Junvey. But then I thought of the tallest man in the world who died just a short time ago. Robert Wadlow was a Goliath at 8 feet 11.1 inches and weighed 485 pounds. Robert was also born in God’s image so I guess Robert looked just like God. The tallest man alive now is 8 feet 5 inches–but he is still growing. He was also created in the image of God.

But then I thought of the little three-foot-tall Indonesians who lived 18,000 years ago who had brains the size of grapefruits. The anthropologists who discovered the remains of at least seven individuals named them the “Hobbits.” If we want to believe the Bible, I guess the Hobbits were also made in God’s image.

There are many different-sized humans created in the image of God. The Masai of Kenya and the Watusi of Ruwanda are very tall and slender images of God. Remember Manute Bol of Sudan who played professional basketball at 7 feet 7 inches? He had no problem dunking with the several teams he played for over a ten-year span, including the Miami Heat. They could have used him in the playoffs this year. He also played one season with Muggsy Bogues, the shortest man to ever play the pro game at 5 feet 3 inches. China currently has the tallest pro basketball player in Sun Mingming who tops out at 7 feet 9 inches. Although born a Godless Commie, no one has said he was not born in the image of God except the Chinese.

So What Did Jesus Christ Look Like?

There has been a great deal of forensic anthropology work done to learn what Christ looked like. It’s difficult when one does not have a body or DNA to work with. The average Galilean Semite male in Christ’s time was 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighed approximately 110 pounds. Although often portrayed with long hair, the apostle Paul once wrote after seeing Jesus that long hair was “disgraceful.” Is he suggesting that Christ had short or long hair? Only God and Pat Robertson know. A gaggle of Biblical scholars have determined that Christ had short curly hair.

Scandinavian Lutherans usually like to portray him as a 6 feet 2 inch, blue-eyed, light-skinned Oslo hippie with shoulder-length blonde hair. But according to the gospel of Matthew, Judas Iscariot had to point out who Christ was when he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He did not stand out among his 5 feet 1 inch disciples. In many parts of the world Christ is the black, Arab, or Hispanic on the wall. Those images seem reasonable unless you are among the Bantu in Africa. The African pygmy is between 4 feet and 4 feet 8 inches, has reddish-brown skin, curly hair of the same color, and a flat nose. He also is a perfect image of God. According to Biblical experts there is no authentic description of Christ, so we have to temper our descriptions with the fact that he lived in a time of primitive health care, dental care, physical hygiene, and limited nutritional diets. He didn’t use Roman baths but the Sea of Galilee must have provided some relief.

Is Science Squeezing Religion?

As archaeologists, geneticists, and anthropologists continue to explore our world and its inhabitants, as scientists, doctors, and philosophers continue to try to make it a better world, science inexorably puts the squeeze on religion. Six months ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a plan to experiment with human embryonic stem cells in the promising treatment of macular degeneration, a common cause of vision loss in the elderly. The trials will be conducted by a company called Advanced Cell Technology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California. Macular degeneration first blurs and then progresses to a big black hole in the field of vision. It is the leading cause of blindness in the industrialized world. ACT has also achieved FDA approval for trials in an attempt to cure another disease of the eye, Stargardt’s macular dystrophy. ACT has already spent a decade researching the use of embryonic stem cells in the treatment of these two debilitating eye diseases.

Last October the FDA approved trials by the Geron Corporation for the use of embryonic stem cells in the treatment of crushed spinal cords. The first patients have been enrolled in the trials. Scientists are hopeful that success in treating spinal cord injuries will eventually lead to cures for certain types of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Some churches oppose the use of embryonic stem cells because the cell must be modified to accommodate the medical procedure. The question is: Is an embryo the size of a period more important to free-will humans than the treatment of diseases that either kill or turn developed humans into vegetables? Perhaps it is a Hobson’s choice for some.  I would suggest that all those who are opposed to the use of embryonic stem cell research sign a living will certifying they will never allow embryonic stem cells to be used in their bodies.

Polls show that 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God. Other polls show that Catholics and evangelicals use contraceptives and abortions at the same rate as the general public. Science is putting the squeeze on. Animal geneticists are now genetically modifying a herd of cows to make milk similar to human breast milk. Dairy companies may be able to sell the cow-human breast milk within three years. It seems so long ago that I squeezed cows teats before breakfast just to put milk on home-grown oatmeal. Times change.

What’s Different About Gays And Straights?

So the religionists have to deal with the thousands of body images made in the image of God, whether they are 2 feet tall or 9 feet tall, are conjoined in the womb, have any of the syndromes man has discovered in his quest for truth, or are children born with organs outside of their own body. The electron microscope tells us we are just beginning to discover the intricacies of our own body. Only in the last couple of decades have we been capable of studying how the brain works in all those physical images created by God. Only since the invention of electronic measuring devices and magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) have we made much headway (That could be a pun!). Scientists are doing preliminary studies on why people are gay or straight. Some scientists have reached the point where they can state with some authority that sexual orientation is determined by hormonal exposures in the womb. As an example, the excessive exposure to testosterone or estrogen, or the lack thereof, creates fundamental developmental differences in the womb. This brings up the question: Is there such a thing as a gay brain? Studies as early as 1991 found that the hypothalamus (the part of the brain involved with sexual behavior) tends to be smaller in gay men. Other studies have shown the brains of gay and straight people respond differently to sexual images. (Ah, that word “images” again.)

We are just at the beginning of understanding why gay men tend to have brains that are very much like the brains of straight women. The brains of gay women tend to be very much like the brains of straight men. These findings are speculative and temporary at the moment–but intriguing as hell. What will anti-gay Bible-Thumpers and the anti-same sex marriage crowd do when the developmental differences caused by hormonal exposures become fact? And it will. Science will continue to squeeze the ignorance out of the Bible. I don’t know how the earth and I got here. No one else does either, not even the pope.

Genesis is a good mythological developmental story and is a pleasure to read. But I think William Shakespeare in Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy describes well the conundrum and puzzle of the afterlife, if there is one:

“Who would burdens bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn no traveler returns,
Puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Then fly to others we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”

So the undiscovered country of heaven and hell has had no round-trip tickets to jack up our faith in what Donald Rumsfeld would say was “an unknown unknown.” Science represents the known, religion represents the unknown.

Funny Jesus Christ Never Mentioned Homosexuality

Bible experts say there are twelve references to homosexuality in the Bible, mostly in the wild, woolly, and horny Old Testament. They also say Christ never mentioned it. In Psalm 139, Verse 13 a reference is made to God peeking in the womb that is also referred to in other verses: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” To the Bible-Thumpers and the anti-gays I address this question: If He checked out each fetus, didn’t He put his “God Approved–Prime” stamp on the butt of each one? After all, a Federal Meat Inspector stamps “Dry-Aged USDA Prime Beef” on the butt of Angus steers to indicate highest quality. If gays and lesbians are unequal second-class citizens, why did God inspect them in the womb? Let’s see. If all human beings are made in the image of God, whether they are 2 feet tall or 9 feet tall, are red, black, yellow, white or mixtures of all of the above, aren’t they all equal in the sight of God, whether they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or mixtures of all of the above? Jon Meacham, the former editor of Newsweek, in his support for the recent gay marriage bill in California, quoted 17th century writer John Milton, the writer of Paradise Lost: “No man can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself.”  Then Meachem drives the thought home: “If a person is homosexual by nature–that is, if one’s sexuality is as intrinsic a part of one’s identity as gender or skin color–then society can no more deny a gay person access to the secular rights and religious sacraments because of his homosexuality than it can reinstate Jim Crow.”

Shouldn’t we interpret the Bible with reason and what we know as a guide for living instead of blindly accepting that some haircuts are forbidden by God, that slavery is approved and acceptable, that the subjugation of women is authorized by scripture, and that a blouse cannot be worn that is made out of cotton and polyester? Get real. Science is tightly squeezing religion while religion seems to be firmly anchored in the ignorance, prejudices, myths, and voodoo of the past. Is a relationship between a man and a woman inherently better than relationships between two men or two women? I don’t think so. We are all humans.

The squeeze is on to eliminate sexual prejudice. New York is the sixth state (and Washington, D.C.) to approve same-sex marriage. The “sky is falling!” crowd will still say same-sex marriage will mean the end of civilization. Ten years ago the Netherlands was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. There is no evidence God has burned Dutch adherents at the stake. Since the Netherlands, nine more disparate countries (Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Argentina, Portugal, and Iceland—Catholic, Lutheran, and mixed), allow gays to marry. Many others, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Columbia, Uruguay, and Venezuela allow civil unions. Catholic Mexico City allows gay marriage. Slovenia, Nepal, and Australia have gay marriage on their political agenda this year. Equality, justice, and scientific reason will continue to win out over ignorance, false dogma, idolatry, and bigotry.

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