If there is a deity, is it necessarily male?

It doesn’t have to be male. Why could it not be female? And if it was genderless, that would be fair, cause it would mean that neither male or female is better than the other.
And for that matter, how do we actually know for sure how many deities there are? I know some religions claim there is one, others claim there are many, but there isn’t any real way to prove this, unless you count Descartes’ proof as being sufficient.

Unlikely to have a gender in my view but if it did as the creator of the universe it would be more likely to be female.

It is a “He” because religion is/was primarily run by men…...If woman ran religion it would be a “She”...and if Ducks ran religion it would be a “Duck”.....

So it can be anything you want it to be….

To be an all-knowing deity as is commonly expressed it must be (a) wholly male, (b) wholly female, (c) a combination of both and (d) neither.

They may of course, as is widely believed, be a sweet transvestite from Transylvania ;¬)

I tend to believe it would be genderless or, more likely, some type of being that is beyond the concept of gender.

Of course not, it’s just more convenient bs that shows the fallacy of religion.

I was hoping that it might be a gentle, but genderless creature like guinea pig or a big giant bunny.

The proverbial “they” speak of nature as being “Mother Nature” so it certainly could be a female. And there are plenty of people who believe/believed in an “Earth Goddess”

The vast, vast majority of life on Earth reproduces asexuality. I don’t see why deities would be any different.

Well, other than the fact that deities are fictional characters made up by humans, primarily male humans.

IMHO, “God” (for lack of a better term) is above the whole concept of gender.

However, that is not to say that there are not a whole host of entities that exist on a higher spiritual plain than ourselves that have gender, both male and female.

In Islam, it would be considered blasphemous to attribute corporeal qualities, like gender, to Allah. Muslims wouldn’t dream of imagining God in any form.

The Catholic church’s official position, as stated in the catechism, is that God is neither male nor female.

Hinduism has some male and some female deities, and then there’s Ardhanari , who is both.

Buddhism doesn’t have a God per se, but often represents its devotional figures as being sexually ambiguous because they represent universal attributes.

@thorninmud, but Jesus is male (he had a penis), and isn’t the Catholic Church’s position that Jesus is 100% God, per the trinity?

We call him God the Father for a reason he is a male. His wife however is female and has a lot of responsibility as well.

Deities tend to take the gender they have depending on the people they are supervising. Since most people in the world see the world as male dominated, their deities tend to be male. Some cultures have more reverence for the powers of women, and so they have female Gods. There may even be some monotheistic religions with a feminine deity.

But look at a culture’s Gods and you will learn a lot about how people relate to each other in that culture. Their God is a mirror—a mythic synthesis of the culture.

One thing I was thinking about when thinking about this question was whether there could be a genderless deity. My gut instinct says no. There are no cultures where gender neutrality is revered. But then I thought that it could be possible that there are some cultures where gender differences are abhorred. I don’t know if any exist. It would interesting to find out.

@Qingu I don’t know whether “100% God” would fly with the Vatican. “100% Divine” would certainly pass, but I guess that the implication of the Trinity doctrine is that Jesus, as the Son part of the Trinity, wouldn’t have been the totality of God.

Better leave that one to an actual Catholic to explain, though.

Lots of religions have Goddesses. Check out some non-Abe religions, throughout time and place. There are even some current Goddesses revered by many.

@laureth Quite true, I regularly worship the goddess Ibuprofen. ;)

The God of Abraham is male. That’s the only one on which I will comment.

I think he is a male, a female wouldn’t screw up the job this badly.

As a Christian I believe God is male because we refer to him as God the Father. Some other religions have goddesses. Since I only believe in my religion I believe in only one male God. I follower of a religion of a female goddess believes his/her god is female. Really this questions answer depends on who you ask. I can only speak for myself.

@Mikewlf337 I’m sorry, I have to ask: You just believe it is a male because people call it ‘god the father’?

@Mikewlf337 There is christian precedent for referring to God in the feminine (Isaiah 66:13, Hosea 13:8, Luke 15:8, Matt 23:37).

I notice that Christians emphasize the “fact” that god is not sexual and has no particular sex. Rather than call god by a neutral pro-noun like “it” they call it “him” because “it is more dignified”. At least, that is what I was told.

In the details, the asker wrote, “What are the views of some of the non-Abrahamic religions on this?” – you don’t need to believe in any other religion (or any religion at all) to be able to answer that.

I don;t expect there is any creator diety, but if there is, I would expect it to be a being with all the attributes of male, female and genderless life forms; as that is what the creation encompasses.

@thorninmud, actually, that is the official doctrine of the Trinity. Jesus is 100% God.

The math doesn’t make sense because it’s not supposed to. It’s a “mystery,” above the understanding of human logic. The hilarious thing about the Trinity is that any attempts to rationalize it or compare it to sensible things (like three candle flames that can join, or three parts of an apple) turn out to be heresies.

The Trinity is mans attempt to make God a mysterious creature and combine God the Father, Jesus the Christ and the Holy Ghost as one person which is not so. They are distinct individuals and act independently from each other. The scriptures say that a husband and wife should become one also but it is figurative. One in thought and purpose only. God the Father was born of a mother and father as well as all life does. There is no mystery to it and so many try and make it complicated. It is simple and understandable. God is male and his wife is female.

It is probably important to note that @Summum is not speaking as a Christian, but rather as a member of this cult that, like many cults, interprets established religions as somehow “pointing towards” its own sacred truths.

@Qingu

Has his information wrong I am not a member of Summum but I do go there and study sometimes. I am a christian and have been all my life. The truths of which he speaks are there for all mankind and I have sought them all my life and found so much more than the scriptures have for mankind. Why is it @Qingu you constantly try and make others wrong?

By the way on thursday nights you can get online and watch summum and there study group. If you check the website you and look in on them inside their pyramid.

He didn’t make you wrong. He pointed out a part of your answer that you left out. He actually made you right.

No he said I am a member of a cult and I am not never have been.

You once claimed to have a mystical revelation that was word-for-word identical to that written by the leader of the Summum cult.

And what does that mean @Qingu that because you say I didn’t that you are right and I am wrong? I did experience those things with the leader of Summum which is not a cult even if you think it is. They are people interested in finding truth and they seek it. If you look at the web site it says “Only to the open mind”.

I should say that Summum is “Sealed Except to the Open Mind”. The information I talk about and have experienced is sealed unless you open your mind and seek it.

@Qingu Yes, I understand that the Catholic position is that Jesus had this simultaneous “completely God” and “completely human” nature, but I’m not finding support for the idea that Jesus was all there was to God.

@thorninmud, well, this is where it gets loopy. Jesus is “fully God,” but then so are the father and the HG. They are all three of them 100% of something.

Again, it’s not supposed to make sense. It’s a divine mystery. If you try to make sense of it, you are delving into heresy.

Personally, I think the doctrine of the Trinity has come to function as Orwellian “doublethink.” It’s something so absurd that by forcing followers to believe it, you’re effectively cementing your control over their minds.

@Summum A fine line seperates an open mind from a hole in the head. Remember, if your mind is open enough, your brain falls out.

My brain is very secure thank you. There is no fine line that you speak of and saying that I have a hole in my head is uncalled for.

First of all, I didn’t say you had a hole in your head and secondly the fact that you are saying there is no line between being open minded and being credulous suggests that perhaps you do.

@Blackberry because father is a title for a male. Mother is a title for a female. That simple.

Female deities are quite common in non-Abrahamic religions, and are more common the further back in time you go. Moreover, in ancient Greek mythology, the origin of all that exists—Chaos—is described in feminine terms. Not only that, the first creative act of Chaos is to give birth to another female deity (Gaia, Nyx, or Eurynome).

In some versions, Chaos then gives birth to other deities (male and female); in other versions, her daughter goes on to create everything else in existence. In either case, there are two generations of female deities before there are any males on the scene at all in this mythology.

Everybody is looking at it in human idealogy, no wonder we can’t find answers to creation.. Why must there be any gender? From my view, we were first created in the creators image then later re-created in form.. This form is the secondary, not the original creation.. No one knows the essence of the creator nor the creator’s children and no one every will so long as s/he takes a breath. If your going to believe then at least stop viewing the after life as spiritually materialistic.

@chewhorse – If cats looked at this question, deities would look like cats. But since it’s humans trying to conceptualize the big question, it makes sense that deity would look human.

However, isn’t imagining a creator at all, human or not, an attempt to personify the beginning?

“If a triangle could speak, it would say [...] that God is eminently triangular, while a circle would say that the divine nature is eminently circular.”
—Baruch Spinoza

If you look at it, @chewhorse, you’ll find that many religions actually do insist that God is genderless. Using “He” or “She” as pronouns to refer to God is typically a convention born of a limitation in language. It is still interesting to see which cultures pick which pronouns and why, however, as it tells us something about how we conceive of the world. We created God in our image, so it is interesting to see exactly what image we have of ourselves.

Even the Judeo-Christian texts consider that god is neither male nor female. In a patrilocal society it is considered a sign of respect to refer to god as a male.

@Ron_C – For real? They just all picked “father” instead of “mother” on a whim?

@laureth it wasn’t a whim. Early societies were female dominated therefore their deities (good ones) were female. A few thousand years ago, male dominance displaced female based societies. Males are characteristically aggressive and restrictive so were their gods. I suspect the early Jewish religion was formed during the transition. That’s why lineage is traced through the female but the god is male, aggressive, and demands blood sacrifices.

Picking gods and religious are probably a whim based on a strong leader. All religions are used to form a tribal unity. This was and is useful in places that still depend on tribes for safety, Afghanistan, for example but is a detriment to modern society.

The “sex” of your god depends on the dominant sex of your tribe. If, like me, you no longer have a tribe, the sex and the god are irrelevant and possibly detrimental to advanced societies.

Good points, all.