God (boy? girl? both? neither?)

[Evalyne Peirs]

So I have a friend who is convinced that God is really Goddess and can give allot of reasons for that belief. I think that god is hermaphrodite because I both agree with his argument and have an argument for Him being a boy so inevitably He is both.
So my question is what do you think God is? Do you think it is wrong to think God is a girl (or half so). Do you think it is wrong to referring to Him as Her?


Top Reasons for Boy:
1. He had His dinosaur phase.
2. He had His "poke and destroy" phase. (Noah's ark and the extinction of the dinosaurs)
3. He made men first "in His image".

Top Reasons for Girl:
1. She had Her ponies, unicorns, and rainbows phase. (Noah's ark)
2. She is very maternal.
3. She is long winded.  

[Galad Aglaron]

Both, I'd say. Because God is infinite, right? And to say that God is one thing and not another thing would make Him finite. So God is man and woman. But God is also tree and wind and star and world. God is everything, because to limit God's essence to one form would be to say that He has limits.  

[Blayd iskander]

i think i can help you. god is an immortal omnipotent being and has no need for gender, therefore "he" is neither male or female, he is just god. he is the first and last of all things.  

[Ixor Firebadger]

Your stereotypes make me twitchy gonk

I think it's both or neither, but I guess it's not something I've put much thought into. It just seems limiting to me to think of God as one or the other. Both male and female were created in His image. And in Christ we are all one. There is neither male or female.  

[Priestley]

Galad Damodred

Both, I'd say. Because God is infinite, right? And to say that God is one thing and not another thing would make Him finite. So God is man and woman. But God is also tree and wind and star and world. God is everything, because to limit God's essence to one form would be to say that He has limits.

If an apple was infinite, would we not be limiting it by calling it an apple? As I already said, definitions don't make something finite, they just allow us to distinguish between things.  

[Priestley]

Yahweh is neither gender as gender is purely a function of sexual reproduction in animals.

Males are considered to be the dominant gender in the majority of species that have male-female sexual reproduction and, as such, have physical characteristics designed to protect their mates and offspring. These characteristics (including gender, strength, power and dominance) have been the way Yahweh has been understood, which is why people refer to Him as 'He'.  

[zz1000zz]

I have nothing to add to this topic, but I had to laugh at its name.  

[Xandris]

I clicked 'boy' at the top because while God might be without a physical gender, the PERSONA is very definitely male. Everywhere in the Bible refers to god as He. Him, the Father, so on and so forth. While God might be just as sexless as the angels, it's still right to call him a Him. smile  

[saki_hanajima7]

I don't think we can conform the one who created genders to a gender. God exceeds all mortal limitations. God is not limited in power, knowledge, or presence, so why gender? So I say neither. Although, for convenience's sake I use "He" when referring to God, just as the Bible does.  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

Like Ixor said, I don't like the reasons for why you feel God is both. Those are all Western concepts of male and female gender.

If anyone's ever read both Wild at Heart and Captivating (the first by John Eldridge, the second by him and his wife), they'll understand that God is neither male nor female. We're based off of Him, formed in His image, but we aren't God ourselves. There is more to God than just "Father" or, as it may be, "Mother." God has all the characteristics of "male" and "female," and He kindly divided some of them up between men and women. God is fierce and consuming, God is proud, God is protective, God is a fighter, God is a pursuer, God is Father and Son and Husband. But God is also caring, also understanding, also emotional, also jealous, also beautiful, and wanting to be pursued. Sure, any of these traits can cross the lines and can be seen in both men and women, and don't necessarily mean anything when they show up in the "non-normative" gender. But men and women certainly do have certain characteristics that are generally specific to their own "gender." God embodies all of them, and we can see how we are each formed in His image by looking at the Person God is, and then looking at the individuals we are.  

[Priestley]

Fushigi na Butterfly

Like Ixor said, I don't like the reasons for why you feel God is both. Those are all Western concepts of male and female gender.

If anyone's ever read both Wild at Heart and Captivating (the first by John Eldridge, the second by him and his wife), they'll understand that God is neither male nor female. We're based off of Him, formed in His image, but we aren't God ourselves. There is more to God than just "Father" or, as it may be, "Mother." God has all the characteristics of "male" and "female," and He kindly divided some of them up between men and women. God is fierce and consuming, God is proud, God is protective, God is a fighter, God is a pursuer, God is Father and Son and Husband. But God is also caring, also understanding, also emotional, also jealous, also beautiful, and wanting to be pursued. Sure, any of these traits can cross the lines and can be seen in both men and women, and don't necessarily mean anything when they show up in the "non-normative" gender. But men and women certainly do have certain characteristics that are generally specific to their own "gender." God embodies all of them, and we can see how we are each formed in His image but looking at the Person God is, and then looking at the individuals we are.

It's important to note that, while gender identity can be said to affect one's personality and its associated traits, character traits are not gender-specific, neither are feelings or emotions. Angels are without gender. Those in heaven will be without gender like the angels, Jesus said. With all this in mind, is it more accurate to say that God is genderless or both genders?  

[Evalyne Peirs]

Okay people, I get it "God is omnipotent" so He is either both or neither. I tend to think of God as a person playing with a model set that is our universe. I will admit that that is probably not the right way to look at it but I'm not going to change my theories no matter how much you guys flame them. Now the question had become do you think it is disrespectful to refer to God as She?  

[freelance lover]

I am very firm in my belief that God is neither male nor female, but it also both male and female at the same time.

That is, God is not bound by the world we live in, s/he transcends everything. To but a gender to God is to, in effect, put God in a box. I also don't think it's wrong to call God she.

Alas, English lacks a good gender-nuetral pronoun.  

[Priestley]

freelance lover

I am very firm in my belief that God is neither male nor female, but it also both male and female at the same time..

That is, God is not bound by the world we live in, s/he transcends everything. To but a gender to God is to, in effect, put God in a box. I also don't think it's wrong to call God she.

Quantium gender? God is both until you look in the box and find out which? xd

Also, I've pointed out that definitions do not necessarily place limitations on whatever object one is defining. It is more accurate to create a definition of what something is than to create a definition from everything it is not.

freelance lover

Alas, English lacks a good gender-nuetral pronoun.

I know. 'It' sucks but is accurate. There's little reason why it shouldn't be used.  

[Priestley]

Evalyne Peirs

Okay people, I get it "God is omnipotent" so He is either both or neither. I tend to think of God as a person playing with a model set that is our universe. I will admit that that is probably not the right way to look at it but I'm not going to change my theories no matter how much you guys flame them. Now the question had become do you think it is disrespectful to refer to God as She?

If one wants to disrespect God, there are worse things one could do than refer to Him as Her. It's all down to one's intentions and one's view of and towards female gender.

The trouble is that humanity is the closest thing we have as a reference to a higher being such as God. The fact that the English language has no gender-neutral pronoun other than 'it', which is used to refer to objects (and objects in the English language have no gender, unlike languages such as French and German), so we automatically transpose our understanding of human gender onto Him. This even goes back to the biblical creation story, where there is the idea that Adam before Eve physically contained Eve before she was brought out of him, thus spiritually possessed both male and female genders (not that Adam was a hermaphrodite).