Why is God a 'He?'

[The_ModeRazor]

Well I hope this hadn't been done before.
So why is God always referred to as a male? After all, if he is allmighty, a gender doesn't really matter for him.

 

[Ragaski]

Most, if not all of the people writing early religious texts were men

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I always thought that we referred to God as He in the same way we refer to humanity as a whole as "man".

 

[Skeleon]

Because back in the day when he was created, the society was patriarchic.

EDIT:
A whole bunch of ninjas in this thread.
Anyway, what's up with this recent increase in religious threads?
Not that I'm complaining, I enjoy them, I'm just a wee bit surprised.

 

[Curtmiester]

Why are cars referred to as girls? I really don't think it matters.

 

[Legion]

Well you should clarify and say the Christian, Muslim and Jewish God for a start.
Pagans believe in a God and a Goddess and Hindus believe in multiple Gods of both gender.

The reason being that men were much more dominant in the cultures when those religions were created and as such their God was a He.

I personally refer to God as an "it" in any discussion.

Why are cars referred to as girls? I really don't think it matters.

That's completely different. Guys call their cars girls names because it's a way of stopping people questioning their sexuality. God being a "he" makes no sense because a unique being of infinite power would not need reproductive organs and therefore would have no sex/gender.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Because that's how it's always said in the Bible. That's all we got. You can either believe that God had a man's voice, or you could take into account any sexism at the time of writing of the Bible. One or the other would be your explanation.

 

[OtherAlex]

Because Satan is a woman. Balances stuff out.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Because men are twats.

Yes. Sexism is the way forward!

But seriously, it's what Max said...

Because The Bible was written in a time where women were considered inferior - making God a chick would've probably resulted in a prolonged, agonizing death.

Oh, and if you're going to make a post on this, don't refer to God as a he in your text.

 

[sramota]

Judging from the general Christian population of this forum I'd say it's
"Because they believe it's a he and don't need proof of anything."

 

[NeutralDrow]

Because English doesn't have a gender-neutral third-person pronoun.

 

[FalloutJack]

A fair point, but I believe the problem lay in the ineffectiveness of pronouns on omnipotent beings, so those who described god as a he figured god would forgive them the inaccuracy. Because really...it would be a mess to either write out "He, Them, She, It, and They being divine..." and so on. And inventing new mutant words like 'Shimthey' would've been disastrous. Frankly, if god didn't strike the writers dead, I think we can give them the leeway, yeah?

 

[SecretTacoNinja]

Because he was invented during a time where women werent exactly high on the social order.

Thread over

\o/

 

[KarumaK]

Because Goddess would be the female term in such a situation.

 

[The_Echo]

I'm willing to bet God is neither. Whomever wrote the Bible probably just assumed He was a man because of the social standings of women.

 

[El Poncho]

Well almost every animals prominent gender is male , leader of the pack of lions is mail etc

 

[Deacon Cole]

Because men are twats.

Yes. Sexism is the way forward!

You are what you eat.

 

[The_Echo]

Because English doesn't have a gender-neutral third-person pronoun.

It.

 

[Lyri]

God made man in his image.

Then he figured man needed a companion and made women

All I got.

 

[Arrers]

Exactly. Besides, it's generally belevied that there's only one God, so gender matterseven less. Whem God's refered to as being male, it's just convetion.

Also images of god are frowned upom in Abrahamic religions, so really if we ask ourselves "is god a boy or a girl" we've probably missed the point.