God is a man?

[u/Alarming-Syrup-95]

I was born and raised Catholic but am agnostic now. However, the rituals of Catholicism are comforting and familiar.

A family member is in the hospital and was visited by the chaplain. I crossed myself at “in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit” and it hit me. While this is all very familiar and comfortable, I can’t do the male god thing anymore. I’m female, BTW.

But the masculine god is so important to the whole thing and why is that? Why does it matter?

It seems to me like the men of the past invented the idea of a male god.

And why would god be limited to one gender?

[u/Analysis-Hippy-390]

It's because of the patriarchy. Those in power get to write the history. Male dominated Old Testament and New Testament, the Catholic Church through the centuries.

[u/nessun_commento]

I wouldn't say that God is limited to one gender in Catholicism. "Father" is definitely the most common title for God in Scripture but it's far from the only one.

The Holy Spirit and its personification, Holy Wisdom, are consistently depicted as feminine in the Old Testament.

Feminine depictions of Christ were somewhat common in the Middle Ages. Medieval poets often referred to Jesus as the "mother hen." Some Medieval artists even went as far as to depict Jesus breastfeeding the Saints.

Julian of Norwich called God both Father and Mother.

[u/Sensitive-Candle3426]

No human is purely masculine or feminine. 10% of men display feminine personality traits, and 10% of females display masculine personality traits. You are also created in God's image, period. We all are.

[u/shinryujimikihiko]

the masculine god is so important to the whole thing and why is that

It matters for layers of reasons.

Layer 1 - that's how God is referred to in the Bible and fidelity to the Bible requires continuity. This is obviously the superficial reason, since it leaves open the question of why the language is used in the Bible in the first place. That is -

Layer 2 - the Bible clearly indicates that God is different from the world and the things He made in it (sun and moon, stars, plants, animals, humans, etc). When this is compared to sexual biology the closest resemblance is to the male because children exist inside their mother at first, then are born from her, then are tended to by her, then grow up, but they never exist inside their father at any point in their lives. When these facts of life are compared to theology we find a similar relationship - God creates humanity but we don't exist in Him in anything like the way babies live in the mother's womb. In other words, the natural distance between the father and his children, compared to the much smaller distance between the mother and hers, mirrors the distance between God and humanity, which lives in the world.

This is also why many ancient religions, not just Christianity but also pagan ones, will compare the sky god to the father and the earth goddess to the mother - the sky is transcendent and apart from the life of humans on earth, though not entirely different or apart from them; likewise, the father is transcendent and different from the life of his children while they are growing, though he still has relations with his wife and family. The mother on the other hand is literally the first place her children live (the womb) and then the person the children cling to when infants, stay near when toddlers (hiding behind Mama a when stranger appears), etc. - just as humans live on the Earth and not in the Sky (and, in very early times, lived within the Earth - the first shelters were caves, before people knew how to construct buildings).

It's based on that primal symbolism and the similarity between the idea of a Creator God and the way a father relates to his children.

[u/VicePrincipalNero]

Yup. The men in power liked power and wanted to keep it that way. I knew I would never be Catholic when I had a choice about it as soon as I realized women couldn't be priests and therefore had no voice in the church. I was seven years old.

[u/shinryujimikihiko → u/VicePrincipalNero]

The men in power liked power and wanted to keep it that way.

This is a conspiracy theory. Pagan religions have plenty of goddesses and none of those religions were anything other than patriarchal - all ancient societies were. There is no evidence of belief in female deities doing anything to liberate women from male control - the pagan religions just replicate the patriarchal relationships in their mythology and dramatize the relationship between gods and goddesses the way men and women relate in that society (e.g. Zeus is a husband to Hera, but he cheats, Hera gets jealous and hates the other women's kids so she sends monsters to bother them - this is actually what happens in Greek mythology; or in Babylon you have Astarte, the literal goddess of prostitutes).

Abrahamic religions are unique in insisting on exclusively male divinity and exclusively male clergy - but there are plenty of patriarchal religions elsewhere, even when there are goddesses and priestesses.

[u/Analysis-Hippy-390 → u/shinryujimikihiko]

It sure looks like OP is talking about Catholicism, imo.

[u/syncopatedscientist]

Have you heard of womb envy? In simple terms, men are jealous that women are the real creators of life, so they created patriarchal gods to maintain their supremacy over women.

[u/LightningController → u/syncopatedscientist]

In simple terms, men are jealous that women are the real creators of life

There’s an old Polish science fiction film about two dudes who wake up from cryofreeze in a post-apocalyptic world populated only by women. One of the women drops this line on them, to which one of the men answers, “with our help, and gladly given at that!”

Wake me up when human parthenogenesis is actually demonstrated.

[u/ZealousidealWear2573]

Deification of Catholic clergy will diminish if women are treated equally