Is God Genderless

[LSJ]

Here's a story;
___________

God was created as the Jewish equivalent of the great spirit that governs all life and created the universe.

Now, you pray to this spirit and thus it needs a name, so you call it God/Yahweh/whatever. Of course, you must show respect to this God, so you find a way to refer to it.

The word It sounds disrespectful as that is how you refer to animals, who are the lowest beings.

The word She is disrespectful as your society is Patriarchal, and the highest female is always lower than the highest male - God is above all, thus you cannot give a name that shows God as below your high leader in importance.

Thus you call God a Him; a title that shows respect like you would another human, and the highest of all as it is a male word, and males are the higher gender in your society.

The Him did not refer to your God as having a gender, as you knew your God was above such things. However, because everyone referred to God as Him, when paintings were made they all depicted God as a Man, and traditions of God as a male arose, where, among the faithful, God must always be referred to a He, as saying your God is a female is disrespectful.

You did not intend on this, but this is what happened.

If you choose to stay where you are, turn to page 8.

If you choose to go to the Egypt to flee the famine, turn to page 11, to continue the journey of Abraham.

__________

End story

Yahweh/Allah/God whatever you want to call Him, is not supposed to have a gender. Yet everywhere God is referred to as Him, where people take it literally meaning God is male, and all depictions of the Abrahamic God are of God as a Man. Depicting Him as a female or even saying She, is blasphemy that results in pain and death, or today among most Christians, a correction.

But have they forgotten something about their god?

God is omnipotent, the creator of everything. God is eternal, above everything associated with mortals, such as species and gender, as God is not constrained by anything such as a need to reproduce or even have a
natural physical form.

All other ancient monotheistic religions refer to God as a non-physical entity, or great spirit; never as a Man or actual physical being.

So, do you think the above story is true for the Abrahamic God, or was God created as a Man originally?

[MaximiIian]

From a polytheistic point of view:

I think that the source of the gods, The All, is genderless. Because The All is all-encompassing energy without a clear, tangible form.
But the gods themselves, have a clear gender, though maybe not a particular sex, being immortal entities.
However, IMO, they present themselves to humans in like form, so their genders are more pronounced to us than they likely are in their natural state amongst themselves.

But that's just my opinion in it. There are many pagans who are hard polytheists, who view each god or goddess as an individual with a specific personality, sex, gender, and set of behavior. To them, a deity is definitely not genderless.

I can't speak for monotheism, but I'd think that it would depend on the individual monotheists' conception of their god. Christians see it as a male, as do Muslims and modern Jews; but likely, early Hebrews didn't, because their conception of a monotheistic deity developed from Monist thought vis-a-vis their ethnic pantheon.
Deists, I'd say, depends on the individual view, but most probably see it as masculine.

[Bovril]

Another explanation is that the God of the Jews actually is a composite of a couple of different polytheistic Gods who were male (e.g. El, Yahweh). I agree that it would have made no sense in the cultural climate in which Jewish monetheism first occured (much later than people assume) to have a female or nueter monotheos. I think this was more because of an anthropomorphic assumption about the nature of gods/a god than because of semantics.

[Playfishpaste]

Him is just a broad stroke term, used in olden times to describe mankind or any being, genderless or otherwise, kind of like how you refer to boats as "her".

"With all man's flaws, he still seems to be an incredible creature"

The above refers to humans, not men, but still says he, as it is the dominant term.

[Chaigidel]

God is an It -- it is in no way human. and all reflections of humanity upon it are merely our desire to make it understandable.

[Vladimir Lenin]

I call God a male. I do it because it's whats most familiar with me. God is in fact Genderless as stated in above posts.

[The Good]

I call God a male. I do it because it's whats most familiar with me. God is in fact Genderless as stated in above posts.

Same for me too. It does make sense though, to assume God at least looks like a male, as Jesus, the human incarnation of God, was a male, and Adam, the first created human, was a male as well.

[Bovril]

Unfortunately English does not have a ungendered personal pronoun. If it did it would be extremely usefull. If you want to convey the idea of a personal god, you have to use a personal pronoun. Since in English you have a choice between male and female, and male is the default, it makes sense to refer to God as 'he', 'him', etc.

[Chaigidel]

why does it make sense to call god a He?
can you only see yourself as god?

[Playfishpaste]

It's just that it's the sexist historical tradition to make the "he" dominant.

It is improper english to refer to a being as an "it".

EDIT: For this reason I occasionally refer to god as her sometimes.

[Bovril]

why does it make sense to call god a He?

Because the theistic conception of God is personal, and the default personal pronoun is male.

an you only see yourself as god?

I don't understand what you are asking/implying.

[Chaigidel]

yes but god's being is so unlike any other things being-- the only appropriate and respectful term is It.

unless you think god is akin to your being? do you think god thinks like you ? moves like you? lives like you?

you call god he because your image of god is found entirely within yourself, (unless you worship the god man etc this is appropriate ) but if your talking about god the supreme one, the ultimate god of monotheism-- It cannot be called he or she, or anything properly-- since it is beyond all understanding it must be called It, or that which must not be named

[Bovril]

yes but god's being is so unlike any other things being-- the only appropriate and respectful term is It.

The term 'it' is also grounded in a language created primarily to deal with physical phenomena. It also has heavily value laden conotations. Most importantly it implies a non-personal object, and a lack of consciousness/intentionality. Both these aspects contradict the theistic notion of God.

unless you think god is akin to your being? do you think god thinks like you ? moves like you? lives like you?

I should note that I am representing the theistic notion of God. My own, in which I have not made a leap of faith, may or may not be different on any given point. As for your points, to be honest, I'm not sure they are relevant. Given that we have to choose between two types of prnoun to refer to god with (female not being a viable option except in special circumstances), we have to make a choice. I am arguing that 'he' better reflects the theistic characterisation of God than 'it'.

you call god he because your image of god is found entirely within yourself,

In a sense my whole perception of the whoe of reality si found entirely within myself. I don't see how this detracts from my moddeling of reality, or the semantic conventions I use to deal with it.

(unless you worship the god man etc this is appropriate )

I don't, but as outlined above, I disagree with this conclusion.

but if your talking about god the supreme one, the ultimate god of monotheism-- It cannot be called he or she, or anything properly-- since it is beyond all understanding it must be called It, or that which must not be named

I agree that all pronouns are thoroughly unsatisfactory if they are used in terms of normal usage. I think 'he' is better than 'it' for the reasons stated. However (and this is a big however), religious language is symbollic. If talking about God as 'it' has more vallid symbollic significance for you, it is the right designation for you to use. For most people it will not be. As long as the designation is used with awareness (in some sense), then which designation is used is not a big issue.

[Chaigidel]

yes and im saying if you study the religions you will see that It has more valid and reasonable roots in theistic conventions -- It is the only respectful term, to act as if you are familiar with god is irrational; and to call it him or her is just a reflection of ones need to frame the universe in terms that are within our understanding (nothing wrong with that)

in terms of respect familiarity and design the word It is the only one that fits.

[AngryTitusPullo]

Every word in Arabic has it's male or female form, except the word Allah.

[Claudius Gothicus]

According to Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions god is genderless and has no human form so basically he is far beyond the human nature and it's characteristics.

[LSJ]

Yes, but you must always refer to God as Him. Saying Her in Arabia or ancient Europe would be blasphemy. You'd get killed for it in some places. Maybe He was supposed to be simply a respectful term as I stated in the OP, but one which has been misinterpreted and become a tradition.

The Catholic church has all depictions of God as a man - any as a woman they would never accept. Yet they say God is above such things associated with mortal beings.

Truly, the reference to God/Allah/whatever as He isn't mostly used as a simple term of respect.

[Desperado †]

The Catholic church has all depictions of God as a man

Isn't that because they based their depiction of God on Zeus (Old looking man with long white hair and beard and robes)

[basics]

He created them man and woman. The man as head of the family as Jesus Christ the Lord is head of the body that is His church. And when He prayed He instructed them to say, " Our Father...."

No God is not genderless.

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

Every word in Arabic has it's male or female form, except the word Allah.

I didn't know that.

God transcends gender. Gender is relevant only to the creation, not the Creator.