Why?

[Dezzie]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

 

[Buttons*]

I made a thread like this once. I thought that God should be called an "it" because it should be genderless... but I got the feeling that "it" is TERRIBLY disrespectful, so we must put a gender on God so that it doesn't feel so "wrong." *shrug* But I'm totally with you, I think God should just be "God" or "It" because I don't feel there's anything wrong with that word. Words are just words

 

[Dezzie]

I'm sorry I missed out on your previous thread and I apologize for making another. I used to think that same thing about using the word it, but then realized it is a bit disrespectful sounding. Oh well... You're right though... words are just words.

 

[Buttons*]

I'm sorry I missed out on your previous thread and I apologize for making another. I used to think that same thing about using the word it, but then realized it is a bit disrespectful sounding. Oh well... You're right though... words are just words.

Firstly, it's ok I bet that thread has been lost in the abyss of years gone by it's good to have a new thread on the subject!

Secondly, it can "sound" disrespectful, but the thing is, it's only disrespectful because we allow it to be. Why should "it" be any better than "he" or "she?" I mean really! What if we assigned God a gender that It wasn't? Wouldn't God be angry? I don't know.

 

[Dezzie]

Firstly, it's ok I bet that thread has been lost in the abyss of years gone by it's good to have a new thread on the subject!

Secondly, it can "sound" disrespectful, but the thing is, it's only disrespectful because we allow it to be. Why should "it" be any better than "he" or "she?" I mean really! What if we assigned God a gender that It wasn't? Wouldn't God be angry? I don't know.

lol that IS true... What if God was a woman (mwwwuaaahhhaahhhaahhhaa)... If I was God I would be like, "What the heck..." I would be mad if someone was misstaking me for a hairy, smelly, man. haha

 

[Caladan]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God.

Lately as in the last thousands of years?

Some refer to God as a woman, a Crazy Woman, to be exact.

 

[Dezzie]

Lately as in the last thousands of years?

Some refer to God as a woman, a Crazy Woman, to be exact.

ha ha ha real funny... men can be uber slow sometimes too. I've seen it... LOTS. :yes:

 

[Comicaze247]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

Because men wrote the Bible.

 

[Dezzie]

Because men wrote the Bible.

Arg... damn men and thinking they do everything. haha

 

[Breathe]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

Judaism and Islam, and early sections of Christianity, do and did not believe God is male, but He is called 'Father' in Judaism/Christianity because He has a father-like role, being a protector, and provider. Calling God a male is wrong, and imo, disrespectful. Unfortunately many Christians have taken to turning God into a man, which I think is scripturally unsound at best, and misogynistic at worse.

In fact, finding an actually male God in monotheistic faiths is quite rare, really, only Mormonism takes God to literally be a male and a father, if I recall correctly.

Why God is referred to as 'He' in many languages is because there is no neutral pronoun, thus no 'it'. The masculine pronoun would be used more often for objects without a gender, as well, so 'He' could be more universal, but 'She' was more specific, meaning women entirely. In languages where there is an it, it tends to refer to inanimate objects or be considered rude, like if you say "What gender is it?" when referring to a baby, you'll get something like, "HE'S a BOY." - hardly appropriate for being respectful to God, eh?

I know that within Chinese, they use a specially created ideogram for God.

 

[bicker]

Our minister makes a point of referring to God as female. Casting God as female makes the most sense: Women can protect and provide, but men cannot naturally build a living person from component parts, as women can. (Personally, as a Pantheist, I think it is rather silly to think of God as having a gender, or really having any personal characteristics whatsoever.)

So to answer the OP's question: Why is God often referred to as male? Because throughout the ages men have worked to cast themselves as more important than women. We can go into a lot of psychological speculation about why men have the need to be more important, more powerful, more in control, but that's perhaps another thread. The point is that powerful men have driven many of the most popular belief systems towards casting God as man, to correlate with their own personal preferences in that regard.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Dezzie,

Why?
Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

Most humans who had invested in the word *god* happened to be males and so this gender problem of using *he*
However as in the future women are going to overthrow men in all spheres including anything to do with *god*; surely someone has to take a lead and start using *her* so that others take the Q and start popularising the use of *she*.
The onus is on you to bring about that Change unless you give up.

Love & rgds

 

[rojse]

Perhaps English language as a whole needs an indeterminate third person pronoun. "It" really does not cut it, and there is the sexual connotation of the words "he" and "she" that I do not really like.

 

[Buttons*]

Perhaps English language as a whole needs an indeterminate third person pronoun. "It" really does not cut it, and there is the sexual connotation of the words "he" and "she" that I do not really like.

I know exactly what you mean. I call my God "The One" because God usually implies Abrahamic God at a first glance. The One is ambiguous and all encompassing enough to cut it for many people without it being called...well... an "It". lol

 

[Zindagee Rahmaan]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

Is it not more interesting to know for why God is called "He" with capital "H" and why not "he"?

 

[Breathe]

Is it not more interesting to know for why God is called "He" with capital "H" and why not "he"?

Respect. That and it's the proper way of writing God in the pronoun form in English.
So if the first reason, same reason as (SAW) in Islam, I guess?

 

[Storm]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

I refer to God as "it," unless I'm addressing an explicitly male God-concept like Christianity's.

To answer the question, though, it's a lingering tradition of patriarchy. For the majority of history,men have been dominant and women subservient at best. The God concepts were defined by men in a culture where women were regarded as inferior.

A related tradition is the English use of the masculine as the default gender.

 

[ChristineES]

God is genderless, so if you want to call God a she, then, by all means, call Her a She. Other people have.

 

[Tristesse]

Why does God have to be a He? I have noticed that lately... everyone says he when they refer to God. I try not to do that... Sometimes I slip because everyone says it and it is all I hear. Why is that? To me I always felt that God doesn't necessarily have a gender. What does everyone else think?

I think mainly because the biblical god, is definitely a guy type of character. A female wouldn't have let things get that out of hand.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Why does God have to be a He?

Obviously, any being capable of creating and ruling the universe would have to have male gentials.