Image of God?

Many people say that traditional Western Civilization is on the decline, some say it is really dead.

But what is "Western Civilization?"  In very general terms, it's a kind of culture typified by certain values, beliefs, and social norms that developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, largely inspired by Christianity,  influenced by some ancient Greek/Roman contributions.

Western Civilization (called Christendom for centuries) spread outside of Europe during the building of empires so it was established in colonies like America, Australia, Canada, etc.

One of the Western beliefs founded in the Christian scripture is that human life is special, on a higher level than animal life, sacred and to be respected.  It's based on that verse in Genesis which says God created humanity in His own likeness.  It led to concepts like human rights and liberty.

While most people probably still believe in human exceptionalism, within the West there is now a very substantial challenge to this foundational value.

An article came out this week reporting environmentalist "Sir" David Attenborough's charge that "We [humans] are a plague on the Earth."  A plague?

Also this week there's an article at Salon.com by a woman strongly in favor of abortion called "So what if abortion ends life?"  She agrees human life begins at conception, she just doesn't care about it.

So I'm wondering where you tend to come down on this question:  are humans created in the image of God?

Ideas have consequences.