Why is God always perceived as a man?

[MobBoss]

This is a pretty ignorant statement MobBoss, then again, I guess you get this a lot. It is only in very modern history that conditions have allowed children to be raised by both fathers and mothers.

Its not an ignorant statement. Your claim that things have just been so tough throughout history that its only today that moms and dads both raised kids is specious at best. Was mortality rates worse? Sure...but that doesnt mean that a vast majority were not raised by both parents. If you have some sort of data to back up your claim by all means link it up.

In history, disease, warfare, and polygamy often meant that children grew up without a father figure. And it wasn't until recent times that child abuse laws have been put in place, so you can bet an arm that kids who did have a father were often abused.

So, all fathers down through history were abusers? I mean come on. Thats just terrible logic.

I'm not sure what your definition of "issue" is, but I can list countless figures in history who has major issues who grew up with both a mother and father figure. Abe Lincoln was suicidal and depressed for most of his presidency, Joseph Stalin was... troubled, Hitler, well I can go on and on.

Did I say having both father and mother absolved one of having "issues" no. But its a no-brainer, and studies have shown that "in general" kids who have both a male and female parent do better (less violence, less drugs, less crime) than kids who come from any other family unit type. As in everything, there are exceptions to each rule.

 

[El_Machinae]

Why not a woman? If God is all loving, it seems easier to make God a woman, due to the whole motherly instinct. Also, I'd feel better having a woman love me instead of a dude.

Woman are more into the loving thing than men are. Men are more into spanking your ass and teaching you a lesson.

What do you think?

Some of the oldest religions have the major gods who are women. The Hindu have a heavy female presence in their upper pantheon and the Greeks were certainly Equal Opportunity.

The older civilizations, like the Minoans certainly had matriarichal gods

 

[GenMarshall]

Kids without dads (or defining father figures) often have issues. Just like kids raised only by dads can have issues as well.

Erm, I was raised without a father after my mother divorced and before she remarried. Also, my father was quite self-centered that he rarely spends the time raising me and also given the fact that he always worked second shift at work. Most of the time I had been raised by my mother and I turned out well.

As to avoid thread jacking this thread, I am going to create a new thread for this purpouse.

 

[MobBoss]

Erm, I was raised without a father after my mother divorced and before she remarried. Also, my father was quite self-centered that he rarely spends the time raising me and also given the fact that he always worked second shift at work. Most of the time I had been raised by my mother and I turned out well.

As to avoid thread jacking this thread, I am going to create a new thread for this purpouse.

CG......have you not posted ad nauseum about issues you have had in your life? Do you not think having a more positive father influence may have eased some of those issues?

Besides, there are exceptions to every rule, even if you had totally no issues at all in a single parent home doesnt mean thats a good number of others dont.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Did I say having both father and mother absolved one of having "issues" no. But its a no-brainer, and studies have shown that "in general" kids who have both a male and female parent do better (less violence, less drugs, less crime) than kids who come from any other family unit type. As in everything, there are exceptions to each rule.

Correlation is not causation. It could be that in two parent households kids watch less TV and that too much TV is the real cause of kids going bad. Also until the last 10 or 15 years, two parent households were dominant in the US; they no longer are. I'v love to see a link to your studies. Studies not done by christian organizations, but by independent groups.

I do agree that two parent households will "in general" have an easier time raising kids because two adults are around to pay attention to what's going on. The real question about any study will be how they measured "failure". In many families today, even those with two parents, kids do lots of drugs. Does that count as a failure or only if the kids get arrested? etc.

 

[Håkan Eriksson]

The Bible, christianity, other religions, the society etc and their ideas is allways made on the basis of a context in which the male is norm.

 

[MobBoss]

two parent households were dominant in the US; they no longer are. I'v love to see a link to your studies.

Ok, compare todays kids with kids say when two parent households were the norm. I am pretty sure you will find more teen pregnancy/drug use/crime today than in a period when two parent households were the norm.

 

[King Flevance]

I understand exactly what your saying MobBoss. I have certain issues I have to deal with being raised soley by my mother. That doesn't make me a freak-show or anything. (Not saying anyone said I was.) It just means I had alot of unnecessary struggles I had to come to grips with at an early age. I don't want my kid to have this problem and would like to make sure my child has a 2 parent home over a 1 parent home.

Is anyone here stating that they disagree with the idea of 2 parents being good so much that they are taking extra precautions to make sure their child grows up in a 1 parent home?

...poor kid.

 

[GenMarshall]

CG......have you not posted ad nauseum about issues you have had in your life? Do you not think having a more positive father influence may have eased some of those issues?

Besides, there are exceptions to every rule, even if you had totally no issues at all in a single parent home doesnt mean thats a good number of others dont.

I am going to answer this in the thread I recently created because I feel it does not add to the discussion in regards to God being perceived as a man.

 

[CaptainF]

Ok, compare todays kids with kids say when two parent households were the norm. I am pretty sure you will find more teen pregnancy/drug use/crime today than in a period when two parent households were the norm.

Not so sure about that.

 

[King Flevance]

Not so sure about that.

ditto.
Min. Charactors

 

[Birdjaguar]

Ok, compare todays kids with kids say when two parent households were the norm. I am pretty sure you will find more teen pregnancy/drug use/crime today than in a period when two parent households were the norm.

The problem with such comparisons is that over time kids were faced with different sets of problems/opportunities. If you compare the 1950s when almost all families were two parent ones, to the 90s, the opportunities for trouble were far less; in addition, there were far fewer families. So the comparsion in any case would have to be on a percentage basis and not an absolute one.

The parenting practices of the 50s and early 60s, the civil rights movement; the rise of folk music and the British invasion of 1964 created the baby boomer generation that undid the neat and tidy very artificial world of the 50s and laid the ground work for the permissiveness and rebellion of 70s 80s and 90s. In short we can easily blame June and Ward Cleaver for many of our family problems today.

In 1964 outside of poor black neighborhoods and beatnik communities, nobody smoked pot or even talked about it. It wasn't on anybody's radar. It is now available to elementary kids everywhere. An apples to apples comparison is very difficult to make.

Society had many more built in taboos against premarital sex prior to 1970 than today. Those have broken down completely and as they did so kids started having more sex earlier. That is not a one or two parent family thing.

We hav many more bad thngs going on today, but the picture is far more complex than you want it to be.

 

[CaptainF]

I'd like to get this thread back on track, as opposed to the parental claptrap.

 

[.Shane.]

What do you think?

Because men, even to this day, and especially anytime prior to the 20th century have controlled almost every aspect of life, so, as they say, "the winners write history", so of course in any monotheistic culture god is going to be male.

 

[civ2]

God perceived as a HUMAN man is a nonsense.
But a somewhat "masculine" "property" of God can still be understood.
In a child's birth process we have a man and a woman.
The man is the "source" and the woman is the "environment" - and together they create something totally new - a child.
In THIS perspective we can (to a certain quite small degree - and not straightforward) perceive God as a "masculine" compared to a "feminine" world - the Creation.
And the human would be that "child".
(Don't take this post as supporting evolution - the Creation includes much more than only our world. )

 

[Quasar1011]

Why not a woman? If God is all loving, it seems easier to make God a woman, due to the whole motherly instinct. Also, I'd feel better having a woman love me instead of a dude.

What do you think?

When speaking of persons with a human nature, "he" means male.
When speaking of persons with a divine nature, "he" doesn't mean male.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

 

[The Last Conformist]

"Primates often have trouble imagining a universe not run by an angry alpha male"
-- Anon.

Also, Yahweh seems to've originally have been a war-god. Some of the oldest parts of the Bible praise him as "a man of war". Warfare is one of the most masculine of human activities.

 

[Ramius75]

Because god was made in man's image.

Agreed.

Depending on the society and needs of priest and kings of the time, different gods were created for human to worship.

Male, female, its all very shallow. By declaring that god itself was male, the female population is undermind of many generations and even till now.

Why wasnt there female bishop,priest,cardinals, pope, mullahs, abbots ?? As society changes, will old religions move with them ? or become a burden ?

 

[The Last Conformist]

There's no female abbots because they're called abbesses.

 

[Ramius75]

There's no female abbots because they're called abbesses.

but they dont get very far up in christianity isnt it ?