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Author Topic:   God's gender
Thor
Member (Idle past 5940 days)
Posts: 148
From: Sydney, Australia
Joined: 12-20-2004


Message 1 of 29 (173850)
01-04-2005 6:29 PM


Here’s a little thought that just popped into my head. In Christian circles at least, God always seems to be referred to as He, or the Father. Why a He? I can’t see how any gender should be assigned to the idea of God.
The emergence of two distinct sexes is a result of evolution, allowing genetic variation in offspring. It is something very down-to-earth and biological. What does this have to do with an omnipotent spiritual being such as God?
Now, your average creationist probably doesn’t believe the part about two different sexes resulting from evolution, but even if we ignore evolution completely, what relevance does gender have to God? Maybe in older religions with multiple gods it is understandable, as ‘junior’ gods and demi-gods are often fathered and/or mothered by the union of more ‘senior’ gods. Christianity however, is monotheistic. One God, that created people from the earth and whose son was born from a virgin mother. No mention of any kind of sexual reproduction that I’m aware of. Now, the main distinction between males and females is the reproductive system, which is only useful to a physical organism. If God is an omnipotent spiritual being and would produce his son via virgin birth, I doubt he would need or possess anything resembling the human reproductive system.
My logic is thus, to label God as a He is tantamount to saying He has a male reproductive system and is thereby attributing a biological characteristic to Him (or should I say, It?), which to me seems like it could be seen as a type of blasphemy.
So, 2 questions:
1. Why He?
2. Could assigning a gender to God be considered blasphemy?
All intelligent viewpoints/thoughts welcome.
Personally, I say that it was man who created God in his image, not the other way around.

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by AdminJar, posted 01-04-2005 6:57 PM Thor has replied
 Message 9 by contracycle, posted 01-05-2005 6:14 AM Thor has not replied
 Message 10 by Hangdawg13, posted 01-05-2005 12:50 PM Thor has not replied
 Message 12 by arachnophilia, posted 01-05-2005 10:42 PM Thor has not replied
 Message 14 by General Nazort, posted 01-08-2005 6:19 PM Thor has not replied
 Message 15 by Shaz, posted 01-08-2005 11:50 PM Thor has not replied

  
Thor
Member (Idle past 5940 days)
Posts: 148
From: Sydney, Australia
Joined: 12-20-2004


Message 3 of 29 (173900)
01-04-2005 9:14 PM
Reply to: Message 2 by AdminJar
01-04-2005 6:57 PM


Not sure, kinda new to this, but was thinking Faith and Belief, otherwise Miscellaneous Topics.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 2 by AdminJar, posted 01-04-2005 6:57 PM AdminJar has not replied

  
Thor
Member (Idle past 5940 days)
Posts: 148
From: Sydney, Australia
Joined: 12-20-2004


Message 20 of 29 (175659)
01-10-2005 9:38 PM


Thanks
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts on this matter, I appreciate your input. Sorry for my delay in responding, I am not blessed with a lot of spare time.
You have answered my questions sufficiently, so I’m afraid I don’t have much to add on this particular topic. However, a biblical quote used by Tal back in message 9 has brought another question to mind, off-topic, that may be worthy of some serious discussion. I have addressed this in a new topic called ‘Missing Sea Creatures’.
Cheers.

  
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