The image of God is the ability to figure out how things work.
Physics is about measuring and naming, barely notable.
An extremely faint shadow of God's image.
Human intellect can barely fathom a virtually uncountable number of that image in observable creation.
Earthly understanding of versions of God's image might number two or three candidates: God's angels, humans and, maybe, dolphins.
Think of angels as God's early sketches of God's image while humans and dolphins as rougher cuts.
Many intentional imperfections ironed out over time.
You might say that it is God's will to fashion a mirror to God's liking.
Oh, uncountable versions, you ask questionably with some doubt: thinking there'd be only one version of God's image.
Such hubris, I respond politely.
92 billion light year wide observable creation and only one tiny planet did God create a mirror.
Not likely, though, somewhat arrogant.
Probably human extinction before we have an inkling of the true size of that number.
Let's talk about 8 billion human beings.
What is sentience in a human being considering that there are 8 billion versions of sentience.
Let's just focus on adult human beings, making that number of diversities a bit smaller, given that just imagining the number of atoms floating together in a molecule challenges the smartest of us.
Even shrinking things to just categories or types of adult human beings isn't easy for most of us to grasp because distinctions between categories or types of adult human beings doesn't yield well to simplification.
You have to ignore a lot of distinctions in order to simplify.
That is what tribalism is about: simplifying to the extreme so that our brains can make sense of things.
A tribalistic perspective can juggle maybe a hundred things: multiply hundred by a hundred by a hundred and you start getting close to 8 billion.
Let's try to go beyond simplification in order to understand what the image of God is and appreciate that attempting to describe that as body image is wrong headed.
All we truly know is what is inside our head and recognize what we can identify from some small number of human beings we can exchange information with.
We are an image of God based on our ability to perceive and how much more than a dog or a cat is that?
Some of us are broken in spirit, in body or intellect and yet we can perceive we are an image of God.
Some of us are gifted in spirit, in body or intellect, is our image of God isn't greater or less.
Human beings are, effectively, single planet bound in the magnificent observable creation.
How little do we know about sentience or even matters of spirit, truly.
Any compilation of fact, metaphor or opinion of a single planet bound species worthy of note?
Probably not.
