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Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 12:16 AM
Whether you believe in a God yourself, or when you think about a God that others believe in, do you sense that God has a gender? Or do you think of God as being "both genders" or "all genders" or "above gender"?
Posted By: Lady J Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 12:42 AM
i believe G-d encompasses all genders including those inbetween
Posted By: Lynne - ChristianLiving Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 12:54 AM
I believe is above gender although I refer to Him as Father. It is impossible for me to really relate to a "no gender" being, so as Creator and ultimate authority of my life, He is Father.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 08:08 AM
It's immaterial. IT doesn't exist.
Posted By: Lynne - ChristianLiving Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 09:16 AM
That's interesting - I thought Buddhists had a god. Sorry, I'm uneducated in Buddhism.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:15 AM
Er.... well.... stick around. You'll find out loadsa new things about Buddhism. The chief one being that, as a Religion, (which for the sake of argument, I think it is!) we're pretty much the only one that hasn't got a God!!
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:16 PM
If I think of a God I definitely think of it being a genderless entity, combining the best of male and female in it. I don't think of God as being male-only.
Posted By: "Rosie" Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:20 PM
We'll know when we meet Her!;o)
I like how you put it Lisa
Posted By: Phyllis Doyle Burns Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:25 PM
I have never asked Him.
Posted By: Helen Doll Making Editor Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:28 PM
It seems to me, if even the flowers are male and female, in balance, then the Creator must be likewise.

But that's just my opinion.
Posted By: -Diana- Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:52 PM
I believe that God is a force and not a person so it is therefore genderless to me.
Posted By: Robin Crime Editor Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/13/08 11:54 PM
I couldn't get the Wiccans telling me that GOD made us in his image and we (and other creations) are male and female......More masculine, yes....

When I was in a non-denominational church and I heard the pastor say..."When GOD created Adam with the male side of himself and Eve with the female side of himself......."

WOW - that did it!!!! Something I had been fighting with a Christian background (Methodist) and heard it right there in church....in 2007..........
Posted By: Eng Culture Nicola Jane Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 01:57 PM
yes christianity teached god is both male and female. but because of taboo and limited human understanding that sounds really weird. I dont think it is sexual, but spiritual.

example, some men are more feminine brained, some woman more male brained. It does not detract from who they are physically.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 05:18 PM
Errrr....Nicola Jane, where exactly does Christianity teach that God is both Male and Female? confused

And I don't entirely agree with your second comment... it needs clarifying, because it depends on the circumstance. Are you talking about transexuals? Homosexuals? Cross-dressers? Physicality is not under discussion here. it's attitude....

And this is the big problem with 'God' isn't it?
Everybody has expressed a different ideology of what they perceive God to be. But everyone here, has expressed a slightly different perception.
This is because the goalposts are constantly being shifted.... Had anyone given the opinion in a church or Christian community, even 20 years ago, that they considered God to be of an indeterminate gender, they'd have been shouted out of your church and denounced for Blasphemy. This god is a S/He, is a relatively recent ideology, and it seems it has been purely disseminated to keep the feminists happy....

Strictly speaking, God is completely genderless.
Biblically, we've always been fed the idea of God as a male entity, because men have been in charge of theological doctrine, dogma and Religious instituition, for centuries. So it's natural that any deity in charge, would reflect whoever was socially in charge, too.... it follows.

An all-powerful, omnipotent deity transcends gender, so referring to the Godhead as a female is completely wrong. But then again, to be fair, it's equally wrong to determine that it's "He", too.

But we need to label things. we need to give ourselves an image, something to hold on to... something mentally accessible and tangible.
And that's where belief in God starts falling apart. because with nothing to cling to, where does the rest of it stand?
The answer is, in our heads.
That's the only place God has any form. And because the only place God can exist, with any credibility, is in our heads, this is why we need to question every aspect of our faith.
because Seeing God in one way or the other, is playing with our own minds.

Posted By: Lady J Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 05:46 PM
I come to it from the Jewish thought process. The names for G-d are both male and female. I think G-d encompanies both and none.

It is how G-d is perceived by the person that is important. In times of need, one might see G-d as female, in times of tribulation, male, and others as genderless.
Posted By: Phyllis Doyle Burns Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 05:57 PM
In the Christian bible, God is referred to as Father and He, Him. If He was both genders, I think the early prophets and others would have said so. I think of God as my Heavenly Father and that is how I address Him.
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 06:19 PM
Phillis - in the *English Language* Bible that is true - but remember that the Bible was not written in English. Every language has its own method of dealing with gender. For example in Spanish, you say "La Luna" - i.e. the moon is female. You say 'El Sol' - the sun is male. So every object in Spanish has a gender whether it deserves one or not. We can't make any judgment about the Bible based on it being in English. We would have to go back to the original language to see if it really did say "he" or "father" in that language. It may have just said "parent".
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 06:21 PM
Now interestingly the word for book is

el libro

in Spanish, which is "the book" - which is male. Books are male.

However, the word for Bible in Spanish is

La Biblia

which is *female* ... so Bibles are female ...
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 06:21 PM
OK one other thing when it comes to the Bible. Here's a pretty clear example of how language is damaged along the way in translations. I'll put it in the Bible Basics thread so this one doesn't get too confusing smile Just a sec ...

OK here's the thread showing how the name "Jesus" is inaccurate, that it is a series of mistranslations in the Bible that got us to say that name in modern times -

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!
Posted By: Phyllis Doyle Burns Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 06:31 PM
Lisa, that is true about the language the bible was originally written in. I really would have to study ancient Hebrew to find out the truth for myself (which would be an interesting study to take up). I have so often heard that the Christian bible was revised by Catholic Priests very early on and they omitted much of what they did not want the people to know, things that they felt only Priests should know about. I do not know for sure if that is true. However, I guess a person has in his or her own heart what they live by as their own truth and maybe I should have stated that in my last post. In my heart, my truth is: God is my Heavenly Father. We each have our own truths.

However, I really think I will study ancient Hebrew as soon as I can get started on it. Thanks for bringing to my attention the language aspect of all this.
Posted By: Ms A Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 06:49 PM
I think of God (or my interpretation of it, as I don't belong to a traditional religion) as "unknown" -- including gender, rather like when we refer to someone as "he" even though we don't know the gender of that person.

I will say, a friend of mine said she thinks God has to be male, because of women's periods. She figures no woman would do that to a friend....

Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 07:05 PM
Yes, I understand that, and I respect it. But as a Buddhist, I don't see him, her or it, at all.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 07:16 PM
Originally Posted By: Ms A
I will say, a friend of mine said she thinks God has to be male, because of women's periods. She figures no woman would do that to a friend....


Not only that:

Brace yourselves: (*near-the-knuckle* alert:)

A very good Roman Catholic, Church-going friend of mine says she thinks God is definitely male,


because...






Otherwise....






Sperm would taste of chocolate.... shocked






I did try to warn you..... blush
Posted By: Shannon L. Wolf Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 07:28 PM
As a fledgling Taoist, I understand "God" to be the absence of ego and form. Without the un-namable ego or form there can be no gender, only the silence of awareness.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 07:56 PM
And......


Sit.

Posted By: Shannon L. Wolf Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 08:06 PM
Mhm. Sun Do class at 5:30 this evening. Gonna go sit with the silence.
Posted By: Lady J Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 09:09 PM
In the ancient hebrew and arabic, the names of G-d are both female and male depending on the person who spoke. Elohenu, Adonai, Yahweh. Different genders each of those words and they are all G-d.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 09:25 PM
As I said, that, to a Buddhist, is immaterial.
Posted By: Lady J Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 10:10 PM
yes, to a buddhist that may be. But to others may or may not be. The question was asked what we/I think.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 10:17 PM
It's kind of a weird though, don't you think....?
Discussing the Gender of God, on the one forum on bellaonline, that doesn't actually ascribe to a God....?
I mean, here we all are...
Is S/He, isn't S/He....? "

That's why I said it's immaterial to Buddhists.
Because it's on the Buddhist forum.....

I'm all for discussing existence, relevance to teachings, comparisons, similarities or conflicts...
But...
gender....?
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 10:25 PM
OK it's my fault for putting this question into this forum, maybe I should have put it into Bible Basics instead smile It just flowed out of another thread we were having and I clicked quickly. If I move the thread now it'll just be completely confusing though smile

OK so we established that Buddhists believe in no God so to them the point is moot. Other people are still welcome to chime in with their points of view smile

Jase - that is fascinating, I was hoping one of you of Jewish background would chime in with some information in that area. So the words they would have used would have referred to either gender?
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/14/08 10:56 PM
Yes, but just as we are expected to respect Christian forum guidelines, (Bible basics, specifically asks that we not argue against the Bible, refrain from questioning the beliefs of others, not dispute the existence of God....) I think the fact that you are in a forum where no God exists is a funny place to discuss things - about God.
Posted By: Jeanette - Editor Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 03:16 AM
Originally Posted By: Helen Wharton
It seems to me, if even the flowers are male <b>and</b> female, in balance, then the Creator must be likewise.

But that's just my opinion.


This has been the way I have thought since I was a child. If everything in nature (with the exception of a few animals and plants) needs male and female to procreate/recreate, God(s) must be the same way if we are a reflection of Him/Her/Them.
Posted By: Jeanette - Editor Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 04:22 AM
Originally Posted By: Alexandra
Yes, but just as we are expected to respect Christian forum guidelines, (Bible basics, specifically asks that we not argue against the Bible, refrain from questioning the beliefs of others, not dispute the existence of God....) I think the fact that you are in a forum where no God exists is a funny place to discuss things - about God.


My dear Alexandra, yes this is the Buddhism forum where we discuss Buddhist topics, but when we have non-Buddhist some to ask questions, we are just trying to answer them. There is a grat misconception, as Lynn has already stated, that Buddhism does have a God. Many non-Buddhists think we worship Buddha. I think this discussion has been relavent and interesting to see all the different views and opinions.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 06:59 AM
I don't have the slightest problem wih people discussing God, They just picked a funny place to do it!
TBH, I think if we discussed the veracity, existence and gender of God in christian forum, to the extent we have here, someone would already have said somehing by now....
Why is it, do you suppose, that I don't go there.....?;)

I have already had my fingers burned by such discussions, and having been stuffed full of it for over 40 years, by a RC upbringing, education and overall influential environment, I'm happy to be done with it!

I guess if I wanted to be discussing God and whatnot, that's where I'd find myself. on a Christian forum.
I'm happy to have had a forum that either doesn't need God, or would be free from prolonged, protracted and frankly immaterial discussion.
I don't dispute the right of people to discuss religious beliefs here.
I just think it's an ironic place to do it.

That's all....
I don't see that as being unreasonable...
In fact, I am just expounding a View, and an Intention...
as in the Eightfold Path....?
grin
Posted By: Shannon L. Wolf Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 03:50 PM
Originally Posted By: Alexandra
That's why I said it's immaterial to Buddhists.
Because it's on the Buddhist forum.....

I'm all for discussing existence, relevance to teachings, comparisons, similarities or conflicts...
But...
gender....?


...and yet the paradox is, here you are engaged in the discussion. From my perspective, perhaps you were drawn to it as material because the gender of "God" as a topic easily exists in each of your relevant topic examples here?

Posted By: Anonymous Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 04:05 PM
Originally Posted By: Jeanette - DV & Buddhism

This has been the way I have thought since I was a child. If everything in nature (with the exception of a few animals and plants) needs male and female to procreate/recreate, God(s) must be the same way if we are a reflection of Him/Her/Them.


But most of the organisms on this planet don't have a gender. The vast majority of life on this planet are microbes. Also, some plants contain both genders on the same plant, some animals can switch gender depending on ecological stressors and such, many corals and even plants can clone themselves to create more of themselves. "Sex" is such a varied topic in biology. Which one does God fit under if he/she does have gender?
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 04:50 PM
Originally Posted By: Shay_LoveYourTummy
...and yet the paradox is, here you are engaged in the discussion. From my perspective, perhaps you were drawn to it as material because the gender of "God" as a topic easily exists in each of your relevant topic examples here?


I'm all for joining in the discussion, if that's what people would like... but my first comment was, and still is, that it's immaterial.
I'll happily discuss it. But I just don't see the point....

If people don't believe in God, Why is it important?
if people DO believe in God - Why is it important?
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 05:12 PM
Let me just try to explain why I find this discussion so bizarre:

I could understand it being discussed in the Christian Forum, where the notion of women priests still rubs some people up the wrong way, and where in some creeds, women priests are positively taboo...
Where in Catholicism, (I'm specific on this Doctrine because I was a Catholic) it is impossible to reconcile the prime example of Mary, as the ideal Catholic women ascribe to, with the fact that women carry the can for, and are the source of, original sin.

I could understand it being discussed in the Judaism Forum, where if I'm not incorrect, women carry and continue the lineage of Judaism: So if your father is Jewish but your mother isn't, you're not Jewish. if your father isn't Jewish, but your mother is, then so are you... yet God is male...

I could understand this being discussed in the Islam Forum, where - well, let's not go to how women are treated in the Islam faith, shall we....? shocked

But the discussion taking place on a forum where God doesn't even figure, just seems totally odd.
or is this actually the safest place to say whatever you want about a Deistic religion, and (more or less, within reason) get away with it Carte Blanche..... is that it....? wink
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 05:17 PM
OK yes I apologize again for putting this thread into the wrong forum, and have moved it. It now has nothing to do with Buddhism. It is simply a question, which is what I had intended originally.
Posted By: Alexandra Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 06:05 PM
well you know, I rally appreciate your considering to do this, i think it admirable.
I meant nothing to offend, nor to criticise or condemn... I just wanted people to think about exactly what they were doing... and how odd it seemed....

Quote:
It now has nothing to do with Buddhism.

It never did have anything to do with Buddhism.....

Quote:
It is simply a question, which is what I had intended originally.


yes, I appreciate that, but you can see, can't you, why it's location seemed so irregular?

Thank you again, for being so thoughtful. I think it's extremely generous of you.

Posted By: -Diana- Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/15/08 08:31 PM
I have to agree that this thread didn't fit too well in the Buddhism forum. I think it was a good idea to move it. Thanks, Lisa.
Posted By: freespirit Re: Does God have a Gender? - 03/16/08 01:40 AM
Well Lisa,
Dont feel to bad I would have made the same mistake myself... I thought Buddha was the God of choice in Buddhism! I started a thread when I was new to this site called Research and asked lots of question and some where offended at my ignorence and some were more then happy to laugh at me and then explan why they were laughing when I had no clue! I am the idiot that asked in the Wiccan forum "Why do you do human and Animal sacrafies?" I think I know more about the Wiccan Rede now then most Wiccans!!! lol it happens to the best of us!!!
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