"If man is made in God's image, what does that say about God?"

"Yeah...yeah, that sounds like a good one!"

For a person who was raised by two Catholics, one who was forced to go to church every day in his youth and forced into Catholic school and therefore never went back in adulthood, and one who criticizes or embraces religion depending on the situation, I have a pretty independent outlook on religion.
I was made to go to church about five times on Easter Sunday, but I only remember going once or twice. When I was six years old and my brother and I told my parents we didn't want to go. They didn't make us. Instead, they discussed the importance of the day with us, a tradition we did not continue.
Still, some things stuck with both of us in our formative years, but with my brother, who is in many ways far more impressionable, these things were fleeting. After getting engaged to an agnostic, he became one. Although he still calls himself one, I think he's an atheist now.
As for me, I still pray every night, but it seems more like a habit or a tick. As one of the nervous, obsessive compulsive habits that came with the anxiety of starting middle school was praying more often, which bizarrely enough is common among OCD sufferers.
Now I only pray once, but can't go to sleep until I do.

Yet, as my health continues to deteriorate with each passing day (and no one is able to figure out how to help me or even what's causing it) and on the career front, I'm finding it harder and harder to laugh while my dreams come apart at the seams, I'm becoming the kind of person who does not embrace faith in times of trouble, but shies away from it. Deism intrigues me most. What was good enough for our founding fathers is good enough for me.
As even scientists will tell you of the rare probability of our existence without some higher power, it makes a great deal of sense to me that God created us then went on vacation. It makes it easier to explain life's great tragedies if God turned his face away long ago. The great wars, the holocaust... It seems wrong to think that God would not have intervened unless of course you believe that the holocaust happened because God knew the Jews could withstand it and in some way would be made stronger because of it, because they are the chosen people. I suppose it's possible, but I'd like to throw it out there...whether God's around or not, the Jews are the chosen people. I'd love to be Jewish.

Even though I'm having a crisis of faith at the moment, I still love reading about religions, particularly Judaism. Many other religions, including Christianity, were born of Judaism and studying the roots of something is always fascinating to me.
But more than anything else in Judaism, I like reading about two ideas.
I like the idea that man was not made in God's image and the tendency of the younger sibling to surpass the older sibling in greatness.

In Judaism, God is not to be compared to anything.
Random Movie Quote Alert:
"Because He's not like anything. Not only can you not see Him or hear Him, you can't even...think about Him? What's the difference between that and Him not existing?"
"There's no difference."
"I mean, Christianity's silly but at least there's something to believe...or not believe. In Judaism there's nothing."
"Nothing but nothingness. Judaism's not really about belief. It's about doing things. You light candles, say prayers, keep the Sabbath, visit the sick..."
"And belief follows?"
"Nothing follows. You don't do it because it's smart, and you don't do it because you get saved because there's no one to save you. You do it because the Torah tells you to and you submit to the Torah."
"That is fucked."
"Don't swear in front of it."
"The book's closed."

If God is infallible then man was not made in his image. Man is the very essence of fallibility. Man sucks and if man was made in his image, God would suck too, which is highly unlikely because of the perfectly mechanized way in which everything he made works. My theory is that man selfishly made God in his image in an attempt to boost his own self-esteem.
God is man in a robe with a big white beard?
I think not.

"And Abraham said to God, 'Oh that Ishmael might live before You!' But God said, 'No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.'"

As the youngest of two children and undeniably engaged in a heated sibling rivalry, I also love the idea of the younger sibling surpassing the older in "Quality" and "Greatness." Of course, genetically, it's been shown that younger siblings get the leftover genes. They're not supposed to be as attractive or as intelligent.
In many cases a younger sibling might copy an older sibling and try to do what the older sibling has done, only better. My brother and I seem to unknowingly copy each other in an attempt to outdo.
He went to Port Huron High School and was on the Quiz Bowl team.
I went to Port Huron High School, got a higher GPA, and was captain of the Quiz Bowl team.
He graduated from The University of Michigan.
I graduated from The University of Michigan...with a higher GPA.
When I was in 10th grade I announced that I wanted to be a writer.
He changed his major because he wanted to be a writer too.
I finished my first screenplay.
He finished his first novel.
I finished another screenplay.
He finished another novel.
I'm writing a third screenplay.

A vicious circle.
According to the old testament, I win.
But in competition we are more alike than we realize and in sharing a rivalry and sometimes sharing a brain, we are the same.
For what is envy if not a kind of love?

"Take your son, your only son..."
"Not his only son."
"It's the only one he loves."