Why do the most prevalent religions require a Supreme Being that is thought of a

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   WiseRabbitposted 12 years ago

   Why do the most prevalent religions require a Supreme Being that is thought of as male
   
   If there is an all-powerful being, who is limitless and superhuman, why is this being, in the "big" religions, considered to be male? Wouldn't that conception in itself attach certain human characteristics, tendencies and boundaries to this being? Doesn't this conception presuppose that only a male deity could be worthy of worship, hence promoting discriminatory practices towards women?

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   nochanceposted 12 years ago

   In a patriarchal society (a society run by men) the deities are more likely to be male. In a matriarchal society (a society run by women) the deities are more likely to be female. Male deities are better known because there aren't a lot of truly matriarchal societies because males and females in those societies usually hold equal power.

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   bright_sorcererposted 12 years ago

   In each of these major religions, it is becoming glaringly obvious that women have been relegated to a role of subservience to men. In part, men are generally regarded as possessing greater physical strength, hence "might is right". There is some evidence, however, in the case of Judaism, where Yahweh is claimed to have had a consort named "Asherah" at a time before Moses allegedly led the Israelites out of slavery. There are also veiled references to "Shekinah", largely centered on the Ark of the Covenant., which some claim was Yahweh's female counterpart. Over time, obviously, any reference to a female counterpart to "god" was removed for varied reasons, a large one being that women, in general, are easily dominated physically by men and were unable to respond in kind. The female gender has their own strengths, such as in the areas of compassion and nurturing. This had no place when each religion was cobbled together for each was designed to present a unified front, often enforced with violence. That nurturing energy would have been a major obstacle for the originators to overcome.
   In short, from my own perspective, it does boil down to one thing - men were created to be physically stronger than women and religion has used that to enforce its dogma and doctrines that clearly place women in roles of subservience... and continue to do so.

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   GodTalkposted 12 years ago

   Your question is degrading to those of faith in that by the question you're assuming that all religion is man made and that men make God in their own image rather than the other way around.   If ideed there is a God, and the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of this, then God is who He is, and we cannot make Him anything else. Furthermore, God has revealed Himself in the masculine, which in no way degrades women. It simply reflects how He chose to reveal Himself to us.
     And for the record, the God of the Bible created man as male and female, and both are created in His image. That means that both sexes in some way are a demonstration of who God is.
   Women are not inferior to men in the Christian religion. As a matter of fact, everywhere that Christianity has gone in the world, the status of women has elevated.

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      nochanceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Considering it was only recently that women were allowed to be clergy I think the christian church considers women to be pretty inferior. And what about all those places in the bible where men own their wives.

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      GodTalkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Just to let you know nochance, I'm not ignoring you. What is brought up in this question cannot be answered in a few sentences. I am writing a Hub about it.

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   whonunuwhoposted 12 years ago

   I'm not sure, but "Mother Earth" gets her fair share of recognition.

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      GodTalkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      "Mother Earth" is not a sentient being and did not create itself. And not being a sentient being, it is really neither male nor female. It is a thing. When we give credit to the earth for doing anything it is worshipping the creation, not the creator

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   AnnaMJposted 12 years ago

   These major religions have used fear and dominance for centuries to force people into believing their religions. Just look at the religious wars that continue to happen.  The people who questioned the current leader were presecuted and their knowledge and opinion erased.
   
   Men (male beings) wrote much of what is now used as our instructional books for religion ( The Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon).They feared and didn't understand the power of women so they excluded them from the writings. There is very little written about the wives, daughters, and female soldiers who helped to build these religions.
   
   Some ancient societies gave women the recognition they deserved and worshipped Goddesses and Gods. The fact that women bear children , and men couldn't handle the phsyical pain of child bearing, is enough for male egos to be out of whack! God created male and female which seems to say to me that there was a female image with God for him to copy.He again used male and female throughout nature.  If there was no need to have females then God would have created one sex!  But he created them to compliment each other and fufill his plan.
   
   Until recently(historically and after the ancient times) women could only hold subserviant positions in the "big" religions and that again speaks to the male role of domination.  There is so much to read about that offers information about the role of women and why they were left out of relgion. Past religions that have been presecuted into non exsistence have exhalted women.  (the Rosacurcians, the Gospel of Mary, The Gnostic religion to name a few)
   
   So basically the reason men have made God only male is out of fear of their own limited understanding of creation and not being willing to share the "spotlight" so to speak.

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   Rebecca2904posted 12 years ago

   I'm not particularly religious, and (in my opinion) religion isn't something that's seen as particularly important in England. A lot of people belong to the Church of England (myself included) but not many regularly go to Church. (I just wanted to let you know my position on religion before I answer this question).
   
   I think there are a lot of things that some (not all, I know that, please no one rant at me for saying this) Christians believe that are quite offensive in a modern society - their attitudes towards homosexuals, for example. I've never thought the idea of God being a male figure was in any way supposed to be a slight towards women, however. I always thought of the idea of God being male in a positive way - God is the Father, in the sense that he protects, cares and provides for his 'children'.
   I can't give an opinion about any other religions as I know even less about them than what I do about my own, but I don't think it's supposed to be seen as degrading to women in any way.

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   danielabramposted 12 years ago

   The Amazons had female gods and Hindus have female goddesses.

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