Why Is God Personified As "HE"?

Just something i noticed in pretty much all of the religious threads. When people are talking about god, they always say things such as "he is all around us" "he is this...he is that" not only is it perhaps wrong in the fact that god may be female, it is the personification that annoys me. I do not believe in the "god" portrayed in any religious text although i believe in a creator. I think that if all major religions stopped personifying "god" and strayed more towards refering to god as a creator, it would bridge the gap between people who dont believe in religious teachings and those who do. Who can deny that we wern't created? If we could find some common ground and just agree on a "creator" and not a personified God, we may actually get somewhere.

i realise this will never happen but i have thought it for a long time and wondered if anyone has thought the same?

It may just be me :-P

Mod Edit: All Caps Title.

[edit on 21-2-2009 by MemoryShock]

It's mans attempt to rationilize something they can't possible comprehend or cope with. Make the thing you fear or believe in the most a little more like you, and BAM he's more believable.

Come on now, look at scientology, if they said that their god was a man in a beard with a huge black book, we'd have as many of them as we do christians.

It's all about marketing my friend.

~Keeper

A good point my friend, i suppose thats why most people either believe strongly or totally disagree. I will ask people if they believe in god and they will laugh and say no, but yet they believe in a creator.....i am one of them! Its not disrespecting religion, but the "marketing" (which i like as a term) has made religion more of a fairytale rather than an idea for the first cause.

no single masculine force can create without a feminine aspect.

all that is - the monad within - is both masculine and feminine.

never tell that to a christian though. they will mob you and burn you at the steak .

-

[edit on 21-2-2009 by prevenge]

i think it was because when the bible was written men and women were not seen as equal. man was always thought of as more powerful so if there was an almighty being, good or bad, it would be seen as a male.

Well, the "personification" of God, probably comes from the realy ancient times, when gods in many cultures was often viewed as being of flesh and blood. For instance, both the Sumerians and Egyptians spoke of real, physical gods, of flesh and blood, that walked and talked WITH Humans on the Earth. The personification might well be a remain from those days, as said.

More of the cause and the topic of "Personification" of gods, can be found in this thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Most of the religions that put the image of God in our heads were founded by male dominated societies.
And.. well. that's it really.

Originally posted by prevenge
no single masculine force can create without a feminine aspect.

all that is - the monad within - is both masculine and feminine.

never tell that to a christian though. they will mob you and burn you at the steak .

-

[edit on 21-2-2009 by prevenge]

I am sure HBTQ-persones would not necessarily agree either.

In a near future, it will be possible to re-program and "transform" ordinary body cells into eggcells, via a method that is meant to be a possible help for male-male couples aswell as infertal females.

That said, if God was originally a laborating Scientist, He would indeed not have needed anything else then a few stemcells.

Men require the ego sustenance not having the capability to give birth. The concept of God as a male makes God appear more sympathetic to them as men, at least psychologically speaking. And so it's really nothing but a tool for the suppression of the opposite sex.

At least that's one way to look at it.

This is traditionally speaking. Not to say that all men today hold this ideal, but there are those that certainly do. Then for a lot of people it's merely the way it's always been, and people don't like change.

[edit on 21-2-2009 by TravelerintheDark]

reply to post by Briles


Tis the masculine aspect of god.

Everyone has a Feminine side, and a Masculine side.

Even the original creator.

Only God can have two heads - a big one and a little one. That is why he is male gendered. Now if you ladies understood the big picture of this you would step off your podiums as if you are being short changed by having a male God. There is a very specific symbolic reason for this spiritually.

Man gives the seed of life and women - well unless you partake in Novasure you are the recycling centers of the earth.

In my opinion God is neither he or she. At the time the Bible was written women were below men, so man could not say God was a she they would automatically say he. One must always remember the bible was written by man only inspired by God. Yes prejudice is in the bible. The individual words are not as important as the meanings of the versus.

Well, I think the past grudge against woman is likely why it's written such a way, but I also refer to god as "the father" and as "he". And it is nothing to do with hatred for woman or anything like that. Just better than saying "it", or calling "him" Pat IMO.

And then there is the whole virgin mary thing(which I don't agree with, but is another topic), where "he" kinda has to play the father.

If someone refers to god as a woman, I really don't take note of it. Either one is fine with me IMO.

Probably the one thing that would irritate me about the thing is when someone makes a big deal about what sex god is. Like if a man is determined god is male because men are power and so forth, or if some woman is just doing it as a way of making some kind of feminist statement. It's a bit different in those cases than a causal person talking about how they relate. Like they are using god to push some kind of sexist belief.