Within the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) the deity is clearly MALE. God is always refered to as HE, even if no anatomical details are given in scripture. I always wondered...what would determine God's maleness unless God had a physical body. Do you think women would prefer a female deity, if they had any say in the matter...which they historically did not have? Do women prefer male entities in leadership roles...in the same way they seem to prefer taller dancing partners?
"I don't know about you but I'm attracted to men who are in control, I think the whole feminist position is flawed... it's based on reason and socially constructed egotism, not on our emotions or biological function. God is a man because he produces spiritual offspring, not physical." Xiao, Mississauga, Canada
Carcano: So.. you think there's something of value in a quote from a man saying that a position is flawed because it uses reason instead of emotion? Hmmmm.
I think that quote is from a woman actually. As far as the reason vs. emotion thing is concerned...I would say that most religious thinking is based on emotion...unless we consider some of the rationalist theologies like the deism of the 17th and 18th centuries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
Man, woman, sheep, hedgehog.. it's not of any relevance. Certainly. Now one just needs to validate any claim that a 'position' is flawed by using reason instead of emotion. In essence you would have to justify how emotion is better and more appropriate than reason.
Well the rationalist approach to christianity died out more than a century ago...so it clear that the majority prefers emotionalism. That doesnt answer your question, but the question really belongs in your own thread...entitled 'Is Religion justified by Reason or Emotion?'
Never knew there was a "rationalist" approach, but we're not talking christianity, we're talking the preference of women in concerns to gods. Where does christianity come into the equation? You'll find many ancient religions had mother/female gods, you'll find many women would prefer god to be a female, and the Irish always say "holy mary, mother of god" - even god himself was born of a woman. You'll find that the majority of ancient religions had female gods as much as male gods.. Whether that's a preference on the part of men or women is questionable. I would personally prefer a nice sexy woman god to a hairy old geezer. Of course personal preference doesn't change the fact that god has a penis. He doesn't do anything with it of course, it just dangles there in godly fashion.
The Venus figurines that are found cross-culturally in neolithic sites in Europe and the Near East testify to the original idea that the primary god was female. There's even speculation that women had more status in society until the advent of parochial religious cults like Judaism and Christianity came along. This speculation is met with some support in the archaeological record, so it isn't without merit.
To who exactly? Do you mean to say "men are considered more important... to men"? I know of quite a few women that see men as little more than sperm donors.
Yes, it could be that the Catholics at some point realized there werent enough feminine idols in the churches...and that this was bad for business. Jesus himself rejected his own mother: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" -John 2:4
That is most certainly what it comes down to: preference given culture, time period and dominance. You will find that the earlier gods featured many women, but as time passes and male dominance becomes more of an issue, that god becomes a man and woman becomes but a mere pain in the ass of humanity. It is interesting to note however that the female influence still holds a lot of weight and is recognised for giving birth to everything, (i.e "mother nature"). We also say "lady luck" and other things that seem to imply that when it comes to goodness it's feminine and when it comes down to wars and hell threats it's masculine. Sounds about right to me. That's true, but he also did the same with his brother, so it's not really a valid point.
To answer this question, one must get at the root difference between men and women, and it is this: men fertilize, women are fertilized. In polytheism, the divinities come in both sexes. The male-female (or father-mother) distinction symbolizes the spiritual-material duality of nature, where "material" refers to matter, and "spiritual" and "the spirit" refer to the lawfulness governing matter. The "spiritual" symbolically "hovers over" (governs) the material, as the sky hovers over the earth. In theogonies where the duality is represented, the earth is taken to be the mother, and the heavens the father; in the duality's agrarian significance, the fecundating rain fertilizes the food-giving earth. (Some monotheistic traditions, notably Christian doctrine, hold that symbolically God cannot be represented as female, when his is a fecundating function.) Hence we have "Mother Earth" (Terra Mater, or, in Greek mythology, Demeter, goddess of harvest and central figure of the Mysteries of Eleusis). The words "mother" and "matter" are even from the same etymological root. The mother provides; the father governs: and man is symbolically the child of both, a material being with spiritual aspirations, or as neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran would put it, we feel like angels trapped in the bodies of apes.
If one preferred a God that gave orders, bossed, and was physically dominant, and those were one's stereotypoes of masculinity, then a male god would be the obvious preference. Aside from cultural indoctrination, I don't see where that preference of deity would arise. As soon as one has a male god, a female one is waiting. The limitations of masculinity will constrain the spiritual world too much. There will be a Mary of some kind, virgin or not, to light candles to.
Rare and outstanding commentary there Robert! I learned something.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Men are physicall stronger than women and are driven more to grasp at power than women are. Once men discovered how powerful religion was and how much sway it held over people's hearts, it was quickly stolen from women and male gods were placed upon the thrones. ~String
But even in a male dominated culture like ancient Greece we see female deities inhabiting some of the most prominent temples...Athena, Demeter and Artemis
