Why God is not a girl...

[Ciel_Rouge]

Hi all, there it goes: God is a man. Not just any man - he is an old man with a beard, right? But wait - why not a woman? Or a girl? Or a giant cookie monster?

Now let us consider the following: why should a supernatural, spiritual being have a gender and age at all? And if God is a guy, whom does he date? The Virgin Mary? Some kind of godesses? Himself? Or is he just impotent? I know, these may seem like childish questions but I often notice that young children tend to have rather un-biased views of the world due to the simple fact that they have not yet been forced to pretend they believe in different kinds of bullshit which their particular culture and society has to offer.

I like putting things in context so I suppose the figure of an old man is supposed to represent patriarchy. Thousands of years ago when many societies were matriarchical, the deity was "naturally" female and had a set of breasts which was equally obvious and self-explanatory to "everyone" as the male God is to today's believers.

Now what I am aiming at is this: maybe this is why the Catholic church will never allow female priests? Because that would go against the very essence of what the church is supoosed to be - another kind of authority, focused on enforcing patriarchy. Believing in any male God, be it Christianity, Islam or whatever, simply means belief in the supremacy of men... What do you think?

[Shell B]

When you capitalize god, you are referring to the god of the Bible. God is clearly a he in that book. Considering that is the only source for the existence of that particular god, we can reasonably assume that the Christian god is not a she. This question has always seemed a bit strange to me, particularly coming from atheists. It is like asking if Harry Potter was really a girl. J.K. Rowling clearly wrote he in reference to Harry. The same applies here.

As for priests, who cares? Do we really want more people able to follow such a strange life path?

[Ciel_Rouge]

Hi Shell B, I shall try to add more precision to this post to avoid further confusion. I am not asking if god or God is a he or she because to my mind none exists. What I meant was exposing the possibility, that both the Christian and Islamic gods were specifically invented as male figures to enforce and promote patriarchy and that this is their true primary function.

As for female priests, I am not advocating the idea at all. To me this life path is not only strange. But I shall express my views on priesthood in another thread.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Hi all, there it goes: God is a man.

Well,yes, the Abrahamic god is a male,although he originally had a wife. (Asheroth)

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are unusual in not having a female deity,as have most other religions,especially in ancient times. In Christianity, the lack of a female deity has been traditionally addressed by the Marian cult and female saints.


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Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel, (Eerdmans, ISBN 0-8028-2852-3, 2005),[1] is a book by Syro-Palestinian archaeologist William G. Dever, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Archeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona. “Did God Have a Wife?” was intended as a popular work making available to the general public the evidence long known to archaeologists regarding ancient Israelite religion: namely that the Israelite god of antiquity (before 600 BC), Yahweh, had a consort, that her name was Asherah, and that she was part of the Canaanite pantheon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Did_God_Have_a_Wife%3F

[Kayenneh]

This is a no-brainer. Gender is needed when it comes to reproduction via sex. Polytheism makes a little more sense, since both genders are represented and they according to legend did have offspring, but to be a single entity and be male just doesn't make any sense. The history of those that wrote the bible is know, of course it's about promoting patriarchy. The bible was written by men, for men. Where's the discussion in this, really?

[popeyespappy]

god was a girl first

[Ciel_Rouge]

The history of those that wrote the bible is known, of course it's about promoting patriarchy. The bible was written by men, for men. Where's the discussion in this, really?

The discussion point is this: is the church itself merely a tool to promote patriarchy? And not only promote patriarchy but to repress women and their sexuality?

I mean from what I heard the Catholic priests are telling little girls to avoid acting like a "whore" essentially depriving them of the very right to be sensual beings, to enjoy their body and their sensuality or even acknowledge the existence of their sex drive. According to those sickos, the woman does not feel attracted to a man, she just seeks "security" - essentially turning the relation into... prostitution or... being a whore On the other hand, they are telling the little boys to control their girlfriends and essentially to supress them...

We all realize that religion is nonsense. My question is, was this nonsense invented to repress women and to aberrate otherwise enjoyable human sexual behaviour into a tedious nightmare of obsession and jealousy?

[Kayenneh]

The discussion point is this: is the church itself merely a tool to promote patriarchy? And not only promote patriarchy but to repress women and their sexuality?

In the end it is a matter of control, no matter if it is about controlling sexuality, behavior, thought etc.

My question is, was this nonsense invented to repress women and to aberrate otherwise enjoyable human sexual behaviour into a tedious nightmare of obsession and jealousy?

Not only. Inventing an all-seeing and knowable being and writing down an absurd moral code forced scared people into submission in order to preserve a certain culture. The culture came first, these ideas were merely incorporated into the church, because it fit the leaders' agendas. Ultimately it comes down to one thing ans one thing only, power.

[Shell B]

The Bible was created as a means of control. At the time and place, patriarchy was how society worked. Men were coming around to repressing women and using a hibbidydibbidyskythingy just made it more convenient. Was it solely for that purpose? I don't think so. I think it was a means for a group to gain power. It is like the Manson Family wrote a book about a deity and then everyone forgot they were the Manson Family.

[Rayaan]

In Islamic belief, though, Muslims do not think of Allah as having a gender as we humans do. He is not feminine, masculine, solid, liquid, gas, nor anything that we know of from our experiences as one verse in the Quran says, "Say: He is Allah, the One and Unique; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Surah 112:1-4). So, this means that the Islamic model of God is that He is unique and He is not like any other created thing that we know of. We are not supposed to think of Him as being a male nor a female because we cannot compare Him to human beings nor anything else that we seen in our lives. Similarly, we cannot even know His primary nature either - "No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things" (Surah 6:103).

The Quran uses "He" when referring to Allah probably because there is no gender-neutral pronoun in Arabic the same way that there isn't one in English (and other languages as well). We do not take the words "He" and "Him" literally just like none of us would take the phrase "the hands of a clock" and think that the word "hands" are talking about actual hands.