He - and if there is a God, I am convinced he is a he, because no woman could or would ever fuck things up this badly.
-George Carlin
Why does most religion talk about their GOD being male? Especially Christains and Muslims. Is there a prominent female god that as big as the other two that I am missing?
Submitted 4 days ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 4 days ago
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
No, it is a good question with the usual simple ugly answers but also interesting nuanced ones too.
For example, one of the first civilizations Sumeria had a very prominent female deity named Ianna
She was especially beloved by the Assyrians, who elevated her to become the highest deity in their pantheon, ranking above their own national god Ashur. Inanna/Ishtar is alluded to in the Hebrew Bible[citation needed], and she greatly influenced the Ugaritic goddess Ashtart and later the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who in turn possibly influenced the development of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Her cult continued to flourish until its gradual decline between the first and sixth centuries CE in the wake of Christianity.
Inanna appears in more myths than any other Sumerian deity.[9][10][11] She also has a uniquely high number of epithets and alternate names, comparable only to Nergal.[12]
otter@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
If my understanding is correct
With Islam, the deity is meant to have no gender and the use of “he” has more to do with the nuances of Arabic language
With Christianity, there is more anthropomorphism and the deity is seen as a father figure in comparison to everything else
garbagebagel@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Outside of Western religions there are plenty of other cool non-male deities. There’s lots of pagan goddesses.
The only “feminine” or female deity that is maybe as well known as “God” would be like nature as it is often referred to as “mother” nature and in she/her. Though I’m not sure pantheists or other religions would refer to her strictly as a goddess.
Western religions talk about a male god because western societies are patriarchal; they need it to support a male-dominated societal structure.
K1nsey6@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It’s the patriarchal nature of Christianity, They can’t have the idea that women are teachers, leaders, that women have roles that are not subservient.
Smeagol666@lemm.ee 4 days ago
Likely comment from a godless commie. I keed, I keed, lol. Viva la revolucione, comrade!
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 days ago
What about Alanis Moresette?
PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 4 days ago
CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee 4 days ago
You mean all anys moresette
occultist8128@infosec.pub 4 days ago
show me which muslim said their god is represented as a male. i’m an ex muslim, allah (god) don’t have a gender, should’ve been pronounced “it” or “they/them” instead of “he/him”. it’s something that is not the same as its creatures based on the holy book.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 4 days ago
A simple Google search shows that there is still debate, at least among the rank and file.
Which might just mean they don’t know their own religion. But since it’s all made up anyway, they’re not less correct.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is a question that’s great at getting theological arguments going. So to start with, we’re going to be ignoring religions and cultures not dominated by abrahamic religions because Hinduism split from mesopotamian religions in a very different way than Judaism and religions not associated with or influenced by the the mesopotamian civilization start are wildly different and I don’t know shit about them.
So, archeologically, evidence points to the Abrahamic God forming out of two or so male gods from mesopotamia and what began as a group devoting to that god eventually developed into a monotheistic religion. It looks like this may have been a storm god in competition with Baal, but as his religion developed he became androgynous but maintained he/him pronouns.
Theologically: hoo fucking boy that’s a fight right there. Neopagans and Mormons are in agreement that it’s because he’s a manifestation of the divine masculine and that there exists a divine feminine counterpart. Catholics (and to my knowledge jews though I’ve met some who agree with the neopagans and mormons) say that it’s tradition to address him in the masculine but he’s genderless. Some protestants will argue that he’s male and that men were created in his image and women less so. Other protestants agree with the Catholics. Others will say that the holy spirit is the divine feminine. And I’m sure many other interpretations exist.
Septimaeus@infosec.pub 4 days ago
YHWH (“Yahweh”) was the storm God of the Canaanite pantheon likely referred to in the Old Testament book of Job. El was the head of that pantheon. When gendered in the text, both were male.
While Judaic tradition championed YHWH above the others, perhaps due to the oral tradition of the parting of the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) in Exodus. The other gods in the pantheon came to be regarded as false/pagan gods, and their worship was considered idolatry (religious infidelity), but these older religious traditions proved difficult to stamp out, with numerous examples of return to the old gods.
One such instance of idolatry in the book of Hosea (echoed Isaiah and Jeremiah) detailed an old (idolatrous) tradition of offering “sacred raisin cakes” and “flagons of wine” to an unnamed god. This god was almost certainly Asherah, YHWH’s sister and the wife of El, whose religious tradition featured the baking of raisin cakes in the shape of her body and the pouring of wine into the earth.
So to answer your question, while none of the Abrahamic religions officially worship a god with a female gender identity, their holy books technically recognize at least one female god: Asherah.
cymbal_king@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Wicca/paganism/Earth-based traditions tend to be matriarchal and use names like Earth Mother, Ancient Mother, Gaia, etc to describe the most powerful deity.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Why? I’m not sure I’m up to a proper history of the Abrahamic religions and how their deity came to be who and what it is. Like, entire books have covered it, written by people with a shit ton more ability to research and support their conclusions than I can.
I’m not even sure how to tackle the subject in a comment length synopsis. Suffice it to say that there is a long and complicated history that led to that branch of religion. It wasn’t a single deity growing out of nothing, unconnected to other gods and myths.
So, I’ll limit myself to the second part of the question.
I think that if you boil it down, Isis is probably what you’re looking for. I can’t think of any other goddesses with such a popular following across the world, across multiple eras. She was a fairly big deity in various Egyptian eras and surrounding locations, and had a major following throughout Greece and Rome over millennia.
You could argue that Inanna was equally a top goddess, though I’ve seen it argued that they’re the same goddess with different names as “she” spread across the ancient world cultures.
But I’m comfortable saying that Isis was, in some times and areas, way more important than Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah/El/Adonai, or whatever other names you want to apply to that deity, in some of the places and times “he” has been worshipped.
If you look only at the current world, I think you’d be hard pressed to find any goddess having that kind of almost monotheistic fervor though. Even Wiccans and other neopagans don’t glom onto a single goddess, and they usually equally revere gods on average.
Since none of the polytheistic religions around the world throughout history really had one god above all gods on a reliable basis, you have to look at sects and cults for equivalents to the monotheistic cults and religions. And that means Isis. She was popular enough to have what amounted to a monotheistic following, here and there.
I wouldn’t argue or fuss if anyone had another candidate, or disagreed with my take though. I sure as hell stopped maintaining my body of knowledge about religions almost twenty years ago, so I can’t pull things out of memory on the subject the way I can with stuff I keep myself refreshed on. And with something that covers as much territory as religion, you gotta keep things fresh or they get buried under mountains of memory.
i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 4 days ago
Greek, Roman, Norse gods had a mix of male and female, although I think “head god” was still male.
In Hindu there is also a mix, although I’m not sure if they are all equal or one is in charge.
Shinto has animal gods (I’m again unsure if there is a particular “head god” or whether they are male or female, but at least it probably isn’t “a man”).
Death_Equity@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Hindu is complex and has some variability depending on the flavor. Some are left up to the individual to determine based on their perceptions.
The supreme being is genderless, the other aspects are more masculine or more feminine and some are androgenous or both. Feminine energy is the most powerful at creation and masculine is the most powerful at destruction. The gods are just a reflection of an aspect of the supreme genderless Brahman, where their characteristics favor a given gender and that is expressed in their visage. They also use names that convey a symbolism.
So no gender is the most powerful in Hindu, but different forms of gender expression have more power in an aspect of power.
VinesNFluff@pawb.social 4 days ago
Shinto’s “head god” was Izanagi, who was very much a man.
SolOrion@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Shinto’s Izanagi wasn’t really the “head god” I thought? From my understanding that was Amaterasu. Wikipedia agrees, for whatever that’s worth.
Often considered the chief deity (kami) of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan’s earliest literary texts, the Kojiki
nomoredrama@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Because He presents Himself that way. That’s the way He wants to be seen.
I had a dream one time, where I was watching myself through God’s eyes. I was surprised that He cared about me, and thought He must be millions of years old. And the thought came to me, I wonder what He looks like? And in the same way I can imagine what I look like even without a mirror, He allowed me to ‘see / imagine’ what he looks like. He was fit, Maybe the tiniest bit bulky, but not so lean that His muscles would be popping out. Dark hair, full beard, trimmed neatly. And if I had to guess an age I’d say in his mid 40s or 50s. Basically in His prime. Forever.
The other interesting thing that came to me, that made sense in the dream. Is that He wasn’t old. He would never age. Because aging came from negative emotions like anger, bitterness, and so on. And He had none of that in Him. He had a zest for life, and He enjoyed existing.
I’ve had other dreams/ experiences as well.
_skj@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The major Abrahamic religions have the same root and have had a heavy influence on most of the world. This is largely due to the Roman empire and it’s successors adopting and spreading Christianity in Europe and the Muslim caliphates spreading Islam through the Middle East and Africa.
Further east, Hinduism is the largest polytheistic religion and features a number of prominent goddesses. Though Hinduism has a lot of variety and the exact deities and their genders change depending on the adherents.
Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism don’t really focus on any deities.
Those are the most widespread religions, many others were eradicated or sidelined by European imperialism. Out of those left, many are animist religions, believing in spirits that can be a variety of genders.
Some classical polytheistic religions are still practiced today. They usually have some major goddesses in the mix.
If you go back to ancient Mesopotamia, Inanna/Ishtar is the head of her pantheon.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
And Jainism has infinitely many gods, they just aren’t that important, from what I gather.
djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
Because Abrahamic religions are kinda the Big Three and you don’t hear much about other religions. Hinduism has gods with female characteristics, a good majority of classical age religions feature female gods, lots of modern druids/neo-pagans/Wiccans revere an “Earthmother” or “Mother Nature” type deity. I’d even go so far as to say the Abrahamic religions are particularly weird for their lack of female representation.
kabi@lemm.ee 4 days ago
TL;DR: daddy issues
ArseAssassin@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
One explanation I’ve heard is that it was cultural inheritance from the Proto-Indo-European Dyeus.
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 days ago
Btw, Christians, Muslims and Jews worship the exact same God.
digger@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
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