The Imago Dei & The Environment

God is a triune spirit, infinite, eternal, & unchangeable as to being, wisdom, power, justice, holiness, goodness, & truth — ie GLORY

Some Christians believe that, even though we (ie people) are created in God’s image, the animals are not. It’s as if they think that because the Bible explicitly states that people are created in God’s image, animals are not.   

Their reasoning process looks to what God says about us (people) & our attributes (created in God’s image) then, seeing no direct statement that animals are also created in God’s image, they draw a conclusion that does not follow from the premise (ie animals are not created in God’s image).  In other words, they accept what God explicitly states about the human image (created in God’s image) & our dominion over the created order, then, while looking g at our (visible) image/attributes) & authority, they interpret us as animals’ custodians & overlords then draw conclusions about the nature of animals & behave accordingly— which is the method of reasoning that Romans 1:18 - 32 calls futility. 

As an application of Romans 1:18 - 32 & what it says about how we supposed to reason, let’s answer the question by way of looking to God’s existence, attributes, & authority instead of God’s statements in Genesis that we are made in God’s image & concluding animals are not. 

God is triune.

A concept of God who is all unity & no diversity can’t account for simultaneous unity & diversity in the created order.  

Father, Mother, Child = Family

Paternity, Filiation,Spiration

Particle, Wave, Standing Wave

In, Out, Through 

Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee = Doctor 

Federal, State, Local = Government 

Individual, Ecclesiastical, Civil = 3fold use of the Law 

Prophet, Priest, King - 3fold office, corresponding keys 

People, Animals, Environment = Created Order 

Over the Earth, Earth, Under the Earth

Solid, Liquid, Gas; Plasma has properties of each 

Number (Idea), Numeral, Word = Numerical Expression 

 

1 (number as idea; 1 (numeral), One (word), 1 object 

If God is all unity without any diversity, then the problem of the one & many in simultaneous fashion would not obtain. 

As to essence, God is not created, & is infinite, eternal, & unchangeable.   The created order is finite but has infinite potential, has a beginning but no end, & is mutable yet stable.

Being - The created order exists. 

Wisdom - The created order is underwritten by structure, which is underwritten by math & numbers.   These operations are intelligent (wise) & intelligible. 

Power  - The sun, moon, & stars are for our use for times, seasons, days, & years.   They are tools for work & worship as are rocks, trees, water, fire, electricity, etc. 

Justice - God is light.   We speak of just weights & measures.   

Holiness - The environment is God’s temple but not God.  Living creatures are God’s temple too, but people are not animals just as neither are the environment. 

Goodness - God judges His handiwork good when He created it. 

Truth - The mathematical relations that underwrite the structure of matter & energy are ordered & truthful.   The elements of the Periodic Table like iron, oxygen, argon, nickel, & cadmium are configurable for chemical reactions, composition in metallurgy, etc.   Do 1 Hydrogen & 2 Oxygens = H2O?  Yes! Is that an objectively true statement?  Yes! 

When we reason from God’s invisible attributes to the attributes of the create order, we see that even the environment bears God’s image. 

40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.  (1 Corinthians 15:39–41, ESV)