Why do we think that the Gods are humanoid? Most religions even go so far as to deny membership, within thier priesthoods, to the opposite sex.
Are we so arrogant that we believe Deity must be male or female as well as human?

We could start with the blatant exclusion of Mary Magdalene from the inner circle. That's bound to raise a few hackles.

Or how about the denial of males from most covens?
(no, I won't say Wiccan...there's just too many factions in that group, but the prevaling idea is that women rule that circle)

I say this is all ego on our part...please prove me wrong and make me feel more than human.

perhaps the true Deity took the form of a bear...it is said a bear can do anything....

I think most deities are humanoid and that they created man in their own image because that is the way that "mankind" "created" them.

Perhaps it's not arrogance, but forces of oppression in the writing of creation mythology for new religions, that lies behind the intent.

[edit on 12-9-2004 by MaskedAvatar]

Groupies:

Just a quick note:

The concept of "projecting" human characteristics to divine beings (in the Old Testament, this is generally the case with Yaweh/YHWH the local clan-god of Israel) is a technical term known as ANTHROPOMOROPHISM (from the Gk: ANTHROPOS = "human" + MORPHE = "shape").

The JE writers (who used the strange term Yahweh-Elohim for the clan god of Israel) found in the "2nd Creation myth" in the Scroll of the Book of Bere#h (Genesis chapter 2:4b to 4:31) made YHWH-Elohim literally walk like a man and talk 7th century BC paleo-Hebrew without vowells, and even make noise like the crunching of leaves in the "cool of the afternoon" so that "Adam" could hear him coming ("and Adam heard the sound of YHWH-Elohim walking in the garden, in the cool of the day") and assumed a solid form according to the story that even "Adam" tried to hide from him...

The so called Hezekielite-Priestly (P) writers of the 1st creation myth in Bere#h [Genesis Chapter 1:1 to 2:4a], written by the same "post Exilic" people who produced the Book of the Prophet Hezekiel in the Hebrew Prophets around 530 BC, makes Elohim (NOT Yahweh) more transcendant, without the (presumably earlier, but definitely a different, group) "anthropo-morphic"tendencies of the JE writers..."and Elohim said...and there was..." he creates (bara) by word alone, whereas the JE writer says that the "first" man and all the animals were "formed" out of "mud" , i.e. pre-existent materials, like a potter sitting at his wheel...etc.

As Sigmund Freud and others before him used to say: It's not that God made MAN in his image, it's that MAN made GOD in HIS image !

And anthropolgists always note that if you want to know the hopes and dreams and overall weltanschauung of any group of people, have a close look at their gods----it will tell you how they project their own philosophies of life on to the sky, almost like a projector...

Food for thought, anyway...

Amodeus has got this debunking thing down .

I'm of the agnostic school of thought.

My personal meaning of agnostic, pertaining to me only is, If there is a God, which I feel there is, trying to rationalize him/her/it into something flawed like myself is also inherently flawed. God should not be contained in a thought, but in a feeling without definition. I know it's there, it is a passive aggresive force.

I don't feel I have any right to put a boundry such as definition of charcteristics, around something much more vast than myself, my community, the universe, dimensions, and parallel hoo-ha's

Just my musings anyways.

On a related note, Amodeus I'm dying to know do you ascribe to anything? I am vastly impressed with your anthropological, and biblio-scholar education. Is it a personal mission, or are promoting another religion by your very accurate vivisection of the old and new testaments?

This was not intended as left handed compliment, I am in sincerity curious.

-ADHDsux4me

We have cretively challenged minds.. we can't think outside of the box.