"But it's empirical enough to the one who experiences it, wouldn't you say?"
Possibly, for some.
What I mean by in the Image of my Creator is that humans could have been designed with certain traits that our Creator would have bestowed on us, i.e. the capacity for truth and honor, and for less noble traits. It is not so much, "I'm white, so all who are not white are not like God." I am talking more than the mere physical realm.