At three places in the bible it is stated that mankind was made in the image or likeness of god: genesis 1:26–28, genesis 5:1–3 and genesis 9:6. See the book of genesis for more details (a link to a page on this website).

So mankind was made in the image of god was it? If that’s the case, and as the old joke goes, then why aren’t we invisible? Or is it that god exists somewhere and that he looks like a man? Where is that god? Hiding somewhere on Earth? Somewhere on the far side of the moon? Somewhere near Pluto? Somewhere else in the universe? Somewhere in some sort of computer simulation or alternate universe? Or is there supposed to be an “image” of god floating somewhere just above us, or all around us?

The author of the genesis fable is unknown, so who was responsible for recording the information that we supposedly look like god?

As an aside, apologies must go to women because, unless god had breasts, wider hips and a vagina, you don’t strictly speaking look like his image – not if you look closely.

There are enormous differences between the looks of the various races of humans on Earth. Which ones of those, if any, most resemble the image that was supposedly taken from that god? Did Neanderthals or Australopithecus look like god?

What do we tell people who are born with deformities? Did god have a hump, a birthmark on his face, a Siamese twin, Down Syndrome, etc.? Sorry, but you no longer look quite like a godly image?

Does the equating of god’s form and man’s form mean that god has nipples, a belly button, reproductive organs and an anus? For what purpose does he have those? Was he born of a woman? Did he digest food? Did he wish to reproduce via his penis, and if so, with whom? If he had all of the things, who designed them to enable god to pass on those bits and pieces to his “creation”?

Or does “in his image” just mean some vague resemblance to a figure with a head, a body, two arms and two legs? How did god get created with two arms and two legs? For what purpose did he need those? Why would a being that is “all around” (before we existed) need arms and legs?

The human form has many weaknesses resulting from suboptimal design, so why would god be created in that form just so that he could create mankind in his own image?

Perhaps you are raging at the words in front of you now at the suggestion that something about the human form was not optimal – especially if you believe that you were made in your perfect god’s image. Here are some things that god apparently forgot when he created that form:

• In the human male, the testicles develop initially within the abdomen. Later, during gestation, they migrate through the abdominal wall into the scrotum. That action causes two weak points in the abdominal wall where hernias can, and do (for many men) later form.
• And speaking of testicles, in humans they descend into the scrotum because the temperature of the body is not appropriate for the production of sperm. Placing an organ which is important for reproduction in a vulnerable location outside of the main part of the body isn’t a great design. Some other animals, such as frogs have their testicles inside their bodies. Did god have testicles outside his body? Why didn’t he design it so that sperm could be produced from within the body where the testicles are protected? That shouldn’t have been too much trouble for the omniscient creator of the universe?
• In the human female, a fertilized egg can implant into the fallopian tube, rather than the uterus, causing an ectopic pregnancy. Approximately 1% of human pregnancies are ectopic. Why god? Without medical intervention this situation risks the lives of both mother and child.
• Two thirds of all human embryos fail to develop successfully. Why would god design things that way? Is god aborting those embryos?
• The existence of the pharynx (the passage at the top of the throat that is part of both the digestive and respiratory systems), which is used for both swallowing food and breathing is a poor design because it greatly increases the risk of choking. Choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional injury death in humans (there are about 5,000 choking deaths in the US each year).
• The breathing reflex is stimulated not directly by the absence of oxygen but indirectly by the presence of carbon dioxide. This means that humans cannot directly detect environments with lower amounts of life-giving oxygen.
• The common malformation of the human spinal column, leading to scoliosis, sciatica and congenital malalignment of the vertebrae. The spinal cord can never properly heal if it is damaged because neurons have become so specialized that they are no longer able to regrow once they reach their mature state. The spinal cord, if broken, will never repair itself and will result in permanent paralysis. Note: science, not religion, is working on that problem.
• If adult humans lose their teeth they cannot regrow them, however sharks regrow their teeth throughout their entire lives. Teeth are necessary for the digestion of some foods, so why wouldn’t the omniscient creator of the universe ensure that humans could regrow teeth?
• The appendix is no longer a useful organ in humans. It would be useful if humans ate woody and other fibrous foliage, however we don’t. The appendix is a vestigial organ, which can kill us when harmful bacteria build up and cause appendicitis. So did god have an appendix and copy us from that image? Why, if we no longer need it?
• Why do humans have a coccyx? The coccyx is a triangular arrangement of bone that makes up the very bottom portion of the spine below the sacrum. It represents a vestigial tail, hence the common term, tailbone. So did god have a coccyx and then copy us in that image? And even more bizarrely, humans actually do grow a noticeable tail while still an embryo (in the womb), however most of that tail disappears prior to birth. Why would god have organized that?
• Humans cannot regrow lost limbs or other body parts. Spiders can regrow missing legs or parts of legs. Starfish that lose arms can grow new ones, and sometimes an entire animal can grow from a single lost arm. Some lizards that lose their tail can grow a new one. If cut into pieces, each piece of a flatworm can grow into a new worm. Why is it impossible for the beloved offspring of the omniscient creator of the universe to regrow lost limbs?
• Almost all animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C, but many primates, including humans and chimpanzees cannot because even though they have the gene for this function, it is defective due to a mutation. What possible reason is there for god to give humans and chimpanzees this fundamental ability and then disable it?
• Humans don’t have the best eyes of any animal on Earth. Eagles have much better resolution and can see into the ultraviolet region; owls have significantly better night vision and can see through a range of 270 degrees without moving their heads; humans have three types of cones in their eyes allowing us to see the colors red through violet, however mantis shrimp have 16 types of cones. We could definitely have used better vision, so why don’t we have it?
• As human faces are significantly flatter than those of other primates, and as humans share the same tooth set as other primates, we can have crowded teeth and poor sinus drainage. This results in a number of problems, most notably with wisdom teeth which can damage neighboring teeth or cause serious infections in the mouth.
• The structure of the human eye (as well as those of all vertebrates) is suboptimal because the retina is ‘inside out’. The nerves and blood vessels lie on the surface of the retina instead of behind it – as is the case in many invertebrate species. This arrangement forces a number of complex adaptations and gives mammals a blind spot. Did god have a blind spot? A better structure for the eye would be to have the optic nerve connected to the side of the retina that does not receive the light, as is the case in cephalopods (e.g. the squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus). Why did god create a better arrangement in the eye of a squid than in those of his beloved creation?
• Why does hair raise on the back of the neck and on the arms of a human when frightened? In an animal with lots of hair on its neck (like a dog or a gorilla) it serves to make the animal look bigger and more frightening – which is good in a fight situation, but the same reflex action in humans is pointless. Why did god need the trivial hairs on the back of his neck to stand up when he was frightened? He must have if we were made in his image. To both young-Earth and old-Earth creationists: evolution explains perfectly why hair raises on parts of the human body (and why that ability is no longer of much use).
• The recurrent laryngeal nerve controls the larynx (allowing us to talk and make other vocal sounds) however it takes a very strange route down the neck, under the aorta and back up the neck. If it was designed, why not take the shortest route? Incidentally, the giraffe has the same strange anomaly – and you can imagine the length of the nerve necessary to traverse, and reverse the length of a giraffe’s neck. Why do humans share this strange characteristic with many other animals? A designer would never have done that. The fact that we have common ancestors explains the shared anomaly.
• Humans grow a coat of hair at about four months in the womb, which then gets shed. What possible reason can there be for a designer to create that?
• Dogs, cats, monkeys and other animals are able to direct their ears in the direction of perceived sounds. Some humans are still able to wiggle their ears, which suggests that we have a vestigial mechanism to control our ears despite no longere being advantageous to do so. Evolution explains that; a god doesn’t. And why do we have far poorer hearing than so many other animals?
• Telomeres are protective caps at the end of a chromosome that are partially sacrificed with each cell division. Think of them as the protective plastic cap at the end of a shoelace, however they are a cap that gets a little shorter during each cell division. They are able to cope with about 50 to 70 cell divisions, each of which happens approximately yearly in humans. When the telomere has been used up, cells stop dividing and our health deteriorates due to an increase in age-related diseases. Surely an omniscient being could have made a design that avoids the shortening of the telomere? No? Well, science is working on it.

Perhaps you are thinking what religious teachers have fooled you into thinking: that such problems are because even though man was created perfect, he sinned and therefore brought these things upon himself? A more thorough reading of the above list will quickly prove to even the slightly-critical reader that is nonsense. For example, if god did switch off the gene that produces vitamin C in humans, why did he also switch it off in chimpanzees? Did they also sin and offend him, or did god simply use a scatter-gun approach to retribution? For some reason he didn’t feel the need to switch off the vitamin-C gene in (say) the lemur because they can still synthesize vitamin C. In fact, evolution shows that the gene is switched off in entire branches of evolved vertebrates. A belief in god simply can’t explain that, whereas evolution can easily explain it.

Note that “vestigial” does not necessarily mean: of no use. It does mean: forming a small remnant of something that was once greater or more noticeable. Just because something is a leftover from an evolutionary past does not necessarily mean that it serves no purpose today; instead, it means that it serves a diminished or secondary purpose to the purpose it served in ancestors. With that in mind, it is still difficult to explain why god would have an appendix to pass onto his beloved creation; especially when that appendix can, and does kill some of his creation (about 50,000 of his “beloved” creation per year)? Would it be too irreverent to suggest that perhaps the reason we don’t see or hear from god any more is because he got appendicitis and didn’t make it?

Why wouldn’t an omniscient creator of the universe have got the things in the above list right, or at the very least have created more optimal designs? Why wouldn’t he have given the best of each body part to his beloved creation? These, and many others, are things that defy explanation by a designer, however evolution gives quite straightforward and evidence-based explanations (via the fossil record and via DNA evidence).

As has been observed: what is wrong with believing in evolution if your god went to so much trouble to make it appear as if it happened?