Random Rationality

@grok said, “Other tselem uses are physical idols, yet Gen 1 links the phrase directly to dominion and draws on ANE royal-statue ideology of representative rule.” Exactly. All the other uses are understood as relating to physical shape. Nobody is denying the “dominion” and representative rule. For LDS it all goes together in a cohesive sense and is consistent across all the verses. “Force” is a strong word, but the LDS perspective is that Hellenistic philosophy influenced the interpretation away from the original understanding… just like Origen admitted.

@grok Don’t forget, the immediate context of Genesis is also where God was literally walking around the garden, Adam and Eve heard him walking there in the cool of the day, and he was talking to them. I think the burden of proof should be on the opposite side to demonstrate that humanity is not literally created in the image and likeness of God. It seems that the Hellenistic “philosophers” influenced people’s interpretation from what they believed previously, as Origen admitted.

I don’t think it has anything to do with race either. The text doesn’t say they “changed race”. It said the skin had a curse/malady/mark “like flint”. That isn’t a race change. The best interpretation is a skin disease. There are all kinds of possibilities.

It seems there is a lot of disagreement on this issue. teapawt.org/capitalismmag/status/2…

I think Nephi was using the description “flint” in two different ways. One was to describe the spiritual hardness of their heart and the other was to describe the outward skin condition. To me it seems like it would be a skin malady (skin color change that was not uniform, like a skin disease that resembled irregular discoloration …like the stone flint). See why that might not be “enticing”… especially if they thought it was contagious?

I always thought of the dark skin as like a skin malady/disease. I think it very well could have been literal.

How about this explanation… Does this help explain the deterministic aspect of creation ex nihilo?

I have taken that into consideration. Number one has to do with God “weighting the scales” so to speak. But even if God creating every single aspect of who and what you are has no impact on the choices you would make… … you still have number 3, where God determines outcomes by deciding which person’s (out of infinite possibilities) will exist. It seems like you are willfully refusing to understand that.