RE: Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?
November 29, 2016 at 7:54 am
(November 28, 2016 at 11:24 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: God doesn't have a sex.
Referring to God as Father and using male pronouns probably has more to do with human culture than anything else. God as a human (Jesus) was a man out of practicality because women weren't taken seriously back in those days.
I like my theory better.
Some time before the people in there thought of the god Yahweh, the god An (or Anu) was already around in Mesopotamic people's minds. An, the father god, King of the gods, supreme ruler.
The passage of this king-leader-father-god to a monotheist mindset unwittingly maintained the maleness of the character.
Believers also maintained the deference with which you feel you should address this king-leader-god.
To me, it makes no sense to kneel before an omniscient being. It also makes no sense that one would need to appease an all-loving entity with prayer and worship. It's as if believers are treating the ultimate good, loving, powerful entity as a petty human king.
But it does make sense, if you look at where the concept of this god comes from - An.