“We are made (programmed) in the image of God”
is a paraphrase of Genesis 1;26-27, and has many meanings. Like God, we have free will, the ability to love, an ability to program that’s far more limited than we tend to think it is, and each of us has the ability, that we generally over-rate, to organize things and people around us.
When we make and do things, we are actually re-programming, using the abilities and structures that He programmed in us and for us to accomplish our will. Most of us are so entranced with the re-arrangements that we make of His programs that we forget to thank Him for programming the wherewith all for for both us and our endeavors.
Today, Catholic Fundamentalists have moved to thinking of God as the “Unprogrammed Programmer”, updating Iron Age descriptions with those from our own “Age of Electron Control”. This change is not significant, except that it may make belief in Him more plausible to moderns who’ve grown up with no knowledge of, or education about, Him.
Vanity, however has remained the same since He programmed us in His “image and likeness” in the Garden. The greatest manifestation of human vanity is a magnified reflection of ourselves. It first distorts Him, then minimizes Him, and, finally, replaces Him altogether with the sheer wonder of the person overwhelmed by vanity.
Those whose vanity is uncontrolled by even a shred of modesty actually consider themselves to be “Unmoved Movers”. It’s easy for political leaders, whose vanity is already near-overwhelming, to, after endless praise from sycophants, believe that they are, in fact, “unmoved movers”, able to re-program their societies, usually holding a huge umbrella of “Fairness” or “Universal Well-being” over all who need to be sheltered. Some even try to re-program the whole world in their image.
Vanity may be seen as existing in stages. All but the most saintly have had problems refraining from the belief that we’re “better” than some of our neighbors in some way or another. Those who do not restrain such thoughts begin to think that the dividing line between them and God is far narrower than it actually is. They are convinced they actually are so much “better” than their neighbors that they have a “duty” to direct the way they live.
It’s normal for children to sometimes dress up as adults, and play games in which they pretend to be much older and wiser than they actually are. The most vain among humans never stop playing “dress-up”, and don’t realize how childish they look to He Who programmed them with a completely different goal in mind for their souls than self-worship.
