Genesis 1:26-27 records God announcing:

“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The source of human rights, at least from the Jewish and Christian perspective, has its origin in that statement. Human beings—the human race as a complete whole, both male and female together—form the image of God. Together, we are like God and have been made for the express purpose of “playing God,” just as we expect our children to some day grow up and become like us: full fledged adults with all the rights and responsibilities that entails. Given that the human race has been made like God, human beings are of infinite worth, regardless of their age, gender, or race. We are all one, all together, one family. It should be inconceivable that we would ever mistreat or harm or denigrate one another, as bizarre as to imagine the Father harming the Holy Spirit or persecuting his Son.

The Future as Myth: Celebrating 100 Years of Cordwainer Smith

The Remarkable Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith

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