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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[Frumple]

Face glowing sounds like fairly extreme radiation, t'me. Maybe some people survived the poisoning, but others didn't?

Alternately god's face violently extrudes some kind of paint. Some people drown in the paint, others come out with bioluminescent facepaint. Paint geyser face would be pretty incomprehensible to people back then.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[origamiscienceguy]

God doesn't (usually) show his full presence to humans on the earth. If they saw his face, they would die. Once we are dead, though, we will go to heaven and be in all his glory forever.

Interesting fact: Moses wanted to see God's face, but God only let him see the back of his head. Moses' face was still glowing hours later.

What about Paul/Saul? He saw God (the Father) and Christ while alive.

This is the quote from the bible (Acts 9:3)
"As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”"
It doesn't sound like he saw God, just a light and a voice.

And Jacob wrestled with the wriggler, too. If seeing supposed'ta kill you, what does piledriving the Lord do?

This one is a bit strange, very hard to interperet it. After the struggle, Jacob says this: "So Jacob called the place Peniel,[g] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”"
So perhaps God made an exception. I suppose the others could be exceptions too. Maybe with moses, the back of god's head counts as "face to face"

[Arcvasti]

Maybe with moses, the back of god's head counts as "face to face"

Maybe God has a face on the back of Their head?

[origamiscienceguy]

Cherubim have 4 faces, but the bible seems to imply that he has one face and we are made "in the image of God" so I would assume God has only 1 face.

[Rolan7]

I still like my theory that each angel, and God, has a monstrous form and a human form.  Thus "in our image" would mean the form they share in common, the human one.  And God could wrestle with Jacob and appear to people "in person" without blowing their minds.

[origamiscienceguy]

Can you please cite some biblical sources of God's "monster form"

[Orange Wizard]

There isn't any, it's just a random idea. Though it does neatly sidestep some issues.

[origamiscienceguy]

But also completely ignore many arguments against it.

[Rolan7]

Probably "monstrous" was the wrong word, at least in God's case.  The form which kills humans on sight except possibly once they're already dead and in heaven.  So, the one of lethally overwhelming and perfect beauty.

Most of the angels are still monstrous though.  Except when they're walking around in human form.

[Frumple]

... what support is there in the bible for a human like form, anyway? Anything beyond the fairly vague "made in image" thing?

It's fairly obvious the critter could take a monster form, though, I'd think. Or any form, really. Ascribing a set form to an omnipotent being is just kinda' silly.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Bohandas]

It's whatever it wants to be.

[Frumple]

It leaves a helluva' lot of wiggle room. Critter could have a thousand arms and legs and half-hundred heads and we'd still be "in its image". Could be florescent neon green, hair that extends miles, etc., etc., etc. Could be basing that image off of something entirely non-physical, as folks in this thread have conjectured. S'bloody vague it is.

[origamiscienceguy]

I don't know what God looks like. "made in his own image" is the best evidence I've got. (we do know that he is terrifying) I don't seem to remember anytime Jesus turned into "the thing" during his life on earth. That would be pretty strange.