- Although he was very wealthy, Michelangelo, a sculptor by trade and described as the archetypal Renaissance man, lived like a poor man. By nature, he was a solitary and melancholy person, bizzarro e fantastico, a man who “withdrew himself from the company of men. It appears that he suffered from Autism, but he was a highly functional Autistic. See photo 1: Pieta and photo 2: David.
- His painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; The Creation of Adam, see photo 3, represents the birth of man according to Genesis. If Adam was made by God, why did Michelangelo give him an umbilicus, navel, which is the site of the attachment, via the umbilical cord, of an unborn baby to its mother?
- Photo 4 is the text from the 1599 Geneva Bible which accounts how God created life. It is written in old English. The following is in modern English:
Genesis 1:24.
Moreover, God said, let the earth bring forth the living thing according to his kind, cattle, and that which creepeth, and the beast of the earth thing of the earth according to his kind, and it was so.
Genesis 1:25.
And God made the beast of the earth according to his kind, and the cattle according to his kind, and every creeping thing of the earth according to his kind: And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26.
Furthermore, God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish in the sea, and over the foul in the heaven, and over the beasts and, over all the earth, and over everything that creepeth and moveth on the earth.
Genesis 1:27.
Thus God created man in his image: in the image of God created he him: he created them male and female.
- Reviewing The Creation of Adam, photo 3, this painting is clearly anthropomorphic (the treatment of gods, animals, or objects as if they are human in appearance, character, and behavior).
But ‘God created man in his image: in the image of God created he him’. God did not create himself in Man’s image.
The human Body, Soul, and Spirit represent the Holy Trinity of God. At the end of life, The Human Body dies, as does the Human Soul. What is left is the Human Spirit, the energy that leaves the body at death or soon thereafter.
The Buddhists believe that the spirit may remain with the dead body for many weeks. The purpose of the very loud firework crackers at a Thai funeral is to wake the spirit, encouraging it to leave before the body is cremated.
- When we die all that is left of us is our Spirit, or Ki in Japanese and Chi in Chinese nomenclature, which, according to Daoist philosophy, returns to the Universal Ki and thence The Light, see photo 5. Therefore, if God made humans in his image, then that image is the Human Spirit, not the physical form as per Michaelangelo’s masterpiece.
- For those readers who have experienced the gift of God, you will fully appreciate this description of my experience: One night, whilst meditating before sleep, I could see The Light in the distance. I could not stop The Light’s approach. It eventually engulfed me, a very special experience. I felt that I knew nothing about mundane life, but in The Light, I felt that I knew everything about Universal Ki and The Light. The peace I felt was delightful. I felt included in the energy of the transcended spirits of the people gone before. The experience was profound. I no longer fear death.
- Michaelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’ is a magnificent piece of art but it clearly depicts the anthropomorphizing of God. Michaelangelo was a devout Catholic. To fit the Roman Catholic narrative, he would have been instructed by the Vatican to paint the creation as he did. But being a highly functioning ASD sufferer, in the Renaissance period with its anti-geocentric views, the ASD mind of Michaelangelo would have been driven to seek the truth of man’s creation. Whatever he was thinking over the 4 years it took him to paint the mural, he did not want to commit heresy.
- It is impossible to know “what was Michael thinking?” throughout the years, but the romantic part of me wants the navel Michelangelo painted to be a sign to the world that, Jesus aside, God does not have a human form.
This is an opinion article by guest contributor Doc Martyn. His opinions are his own.
