• supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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    10 days ago

    No, it is a good question with the usual simple ugly answers but also interesting nuanced ones too.

    For example, one of the first civilizations Sumeria had a very prominent female deity named Ianna

    She was especially beloved by the Assyrians, who elevated her to become the highest deity in their pantheon, ranking above their own national god Ashur. Inanna/Ishtar is alluded to in the Hebrew Bible[citation needed], and she greatly influenced the Ugaritic goddess Ashtart and later the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who in turn possibly influenced the development of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Her cult continued to flourish until its gradual decline between the first and sixth centuries CE in the wake of Christianity.

    Inanna appears in more myths than any other Sumerian deity.[9][10][11] She also has a uniquely high number of epithets and alternate names, comparable only to Nergal.[12]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna

  • GodlessCommie@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    It’s the patriarchal nature of Christianity, They can’t have the idea that women are teachers, leaders, that women have roles that are not subservient.

    • Smeagol666@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Likely comment from a godless commie. I keed, I keed, lol. Viva la revolucione, comrade!

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    This is a question that’s great at getting theological arguments going. So to start with, we’re going to be ignoring religions and cultures not dominated by abrahamic religions because Hinduism split from mesopotamian religions in a very different way than Judaism and religions not associated with or influenced by the the mesopotamian civilization start are wildly different and I don’t know shit about them.

    So, archeologically, evidence points to the Abrahamic God forming out of two or so male gods from mesopotamia and what began as a group devoting to that god eventually developed into a monotheistic religion. It looks like this may have been a storm god in competition with Baal, but as his religion developed he became androgynous but maintained he/him pronouns.

    Theologically: hoo fucking boy that’s a fight right there. Neopagans and Mormons are in agreement that it’s because he’s a manifestation of the divine masculine and that there exists a divine feminine counterpart. Catholics (and to my knowledge jews though I’ve met some who agree with the neopagans and mormons) say that it’s tradition to address him in the masculine but he’s genderless. Some protestants will argue that he’s male and that men were created in his image and women less so. Other protestants agree with the Catholics. Others will say that the holy spirit is the divine feminine. And I’m sure many other interpretations exist.

  • nomoredrama@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Because He presents Himself that way. That’s the way He wants to be seen.

    I had a dream one time, where I was watching myself through God’s eyes. I was surprised that He cared about me, and thought He must be millions of years old. And the thought came to me, I wonder what He looks like? And in the same way I can imagine what I look like even without a mirror, He allowed me to ‘see / imagine’ what he looks like. He was fit, Maybe the tiniest bit bulky, but not so lean that His muscles would be popping out. Dark hair, full beard, trimmed neatly. And if I had to guess an age I’d say in his mid 40s or 50s. Basically in His prime. Forever.

    The other interesting thing that came to me, that made sense in the dream. Is that He wasn’t old. He would never age. Because aging came from negative emotions like anger, bitterness, and so on. And He had none of that in Him. He had a zest for life, and He enjoyed existing.

    I’ve had other dreams/ experiences as well.

  • cymbal_king@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Wicca/paganism/Earth-based traditions tend to be matriarchal and use names like Earth Mother, Ancient Mother, Gaia, etc to describe the most powerful deity.

  • _skj@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    The major Abrahamic religions have the same root and have had a heavy influence on most of the world. This is largely due to the Roman empire and it’s successors adopting and spreading Christianity in Europe and the Muslim caliphates spreading Islam through the Middle East and Africa.

    Further east, Hinduism is the largest polytheistic religion and features a number of prominent goddesses. Though Hinduism has a lot of variety and the exact deities and their genders change depending on the adherents.

    Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism don’t really focus on any deities.

    Those are the most widespread religions, many others were eradicated or sidelined by European imperialism. Out of those left, many are animist religions, believing in spirits that can be a variety of genders.

    Some classical polytheistic religions are still practiced today. They usually have some major goddesses in the mix.

    If you go back to ancient Mesopotamia, Inanna/Ishtar is the head of her pantheon.

  • occultist8128@infosec.pub
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    10 days ago

    show me which muslim said their god is represented as a male. i’m an ex muslim, allah (god) don’t have a gender, should’ve been pronounced “it” or “they/them” instead of “he/him”. it’s something that is not the same as its creatures based on the holy book.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      A simple Google search shows that there is still debate, at least among the rank and file.

      Which might just mean they don’t know their own religion. But since it’s all made up anyway, they’re not less correct.

  • unknown1234_5@kbin.earth
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    9 days ago

    the cultures that were around when abrahamic religions (christianity, judaism, islam, and all offshoots whether considered separate or not) were the patriarchal (men in charge) and misogynystic (prejudice against women). this was adopted into their religion, which in turn influenced the future of their culture and any cultures it took hold in. large islamic and christian states such as the ottoman empire, the (later) roman empire, and the catholic empire i mean church spread this to pretty much all of europe and the middle east. colonialism spread this influence to the americas and part of africa. this large influence, along with trade, also affected religions in places that were not affected as much, such as asia and the parts of africa they didn’t colonise. this resulted in pretty much all of the non-asian world having a abrahamic religion as their biggest one, which caused the various african, pre-catholic european, and pre-colonial american religions to be either eradicated or forgotten. it also prevented the prominent asian religions (which were already well-established at that point, and did the same thing as the previous point to the areas they were in) from spreading much further.

    as it’s relevant to the topic, I feel like I should mention that I am a christian. I don’t think anything I said here was biased, but if i missed something important please let me know so i don’t accidentally misrepresent other religions.

  • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Outside of Western religions there are plenty of other cool non-male deities. There’s lots of pagan goddesses.

    The only “feminine” or female deity that is maybe as well known as “God” would be like nature as it is often referred to as “mother” nature and in she/her. Though I’m not sure pantheists or other religions would refer to her strictly as a goddess.

    Western religions talk about a male god because western societies are patriarchal; they need it to support a male-dominated societal structure.

    • bluGill@fedia.io
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      10 days ago

      According to muslims. christians reject the muslims: not related except taking a few names. jews reject both as only taking the name of their god.

      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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        10 days ago

        What do you mean with the word “reject” in this context? I mean they’re all Abrahamic religions and share that foundation. But they all disagree on who is the last prophet. Islam would even acknowledge Jesus. He’s just not the most important prophet. And we christians have all the old Jewish stories in the Old Testament and we study them and deem everything to be true. What the Israelites and all the other tribes did in the Iron Age and how it all came to be. And our messiah was a Jew. So there is a strong bond between those religions. But I’m not very well educated on the Jewish perspective on this renewal and spin-off of their religion.

        • bluGill@fedia.io
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          10 days ago

          By going beyond they are rejecting ‘the truth’. christians read The old testiment looking for jesus but otyerwise superceeded.

          • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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            10 days ago

            That’s not what the catholic church taught to me. I believe they said something like that the new covenant means we get a new relationship with god. But it doesn’t invalidate the old one. It’s more or less civil laws and ceremonial laws that don’t apply anymore while the deeper morals shouldn’t really contradict each other. And the history and stories stay relevant. (And they made us learn a good amount of them, like what the Samaritan tribe did and a few others, the main story arcs with Moses, Abraham, the flooding and Noah, Lot…) I mean we wouldn’t even be able to tell how the world came into existence without relying solely on the Old Testament.

            • bluGill@fedia.io
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              9 days ago

              I grossly oversimplified things (I was typing on a phone). If everyone understands the above as a gross over simplification Christians will generally agree it is close enough to their truth. Meanwhile if we get into the more complex version that whichever Christian sect believes we discover this is no agreement.

              • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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                9 days ago

                Yeah, I mean you’re probably right. And it’s a super complicated topic anyway like all theology 😅

        • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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          10 days ago

          Jews believe the truth of their faith ends with them. Christians believe the truth of their faith ends with them. Islam believes they have the final truth.

          • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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            10 days ago

            But is that rejection, or what are the consequences? I mean even every denomination of christianity thinks all the other ones are wrong. All the holy books are in itself full of contradictions, so people interpret them and deem every scholar of their own faith wrong, once it opposes their own take on it… So I’m not sure if they even think like that. I mean in practice it turns out that way. Everyone forms tribes and they’re the only ones blessed with the truth. But I think that’s way smaller groups, and kind of the other way round. Because religion is to a large degree about tribalism and not intellectual arguments. Though they have that, too. But it’s slapped on top. Maybe I’ve answered my question with that… 😆

            • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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              10 days ago

              The other denominations think the other ones are mistaken in most cases. Some like LDS are seen as “wrong” though I would argue they should be seen as a new Abrahamic branch.

              Judaism sees no truth in Christianity or Islam. Christianity sees the Jewish faith as outdated in the light if the teachings of Jesus. Islam thinks both Jews and Christians have a misunderstanding of the truth God gave them.

              This really isn’t about tribalism. It’s about what you must accept to justify your belief. If a Christian believes any of the core principles of Islam they kind of can’t be Christian because the truth was supposed to be that Christ was the final messenger. If there is another prophet that undoes Jesus’ supremacy.

              • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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                10 days ago

                Hmmh, thanks. I wrote another comment here, detailing how I wasn’t taught that Jewish faith is outdated. Their way of living and civil laws, yes. But most of their books is what we look at to see how the world was created and what happened until Jesus was born. And that’s pretty much in place as is. But I’m not a theologian. I don’t think they taught me much about Islam, though.

                And sure, I can see how it’s different the other way around, if someone declares a messiah and it’s not the same belief any more.

                • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works
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                  10 days ago

                  Their religious laws are outdated for Christians in light of the message of Christ. Theoretically Jesus’s sacrifice fulfills the laws.

  • Ziggurat@fedia.io
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    10 days ago

    Especially Christains and Muslims. Is there a prominent female god that as big as the other two

    Technically, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim worship the same “God”. And have a big corpus of common texts and prophet (at the point the Koran talks a lot about Jesus) their religious differences are mostly about “interpretation” but they have way more similiarities than conservative of either religion like to admit

    the trick is that the big block of Abrahamic monotheism is like the major monotheist religion. Then you have various polytheist pantheon having a mother earth figure but I don’t know them enough to know how major/female would be amateratsu or patchamama Neo-Pagan also tend to worship a Godess However, it’s a kind of made-up underground religion more than a major traditional one.

  • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 days ago

    Because Abrahamic religions are kinda the Big Three and you don’t hear much about other religions. Hinduism has gods with female characteristics, a good majority of classical age religions feature female gods, lots of modern druids/neo-pagans/Wiccans revere an “Earthmother” or “Mother Nature” type deity. I’d even go so far as to say the Abrahamic religions are particularly weird for their lack of female representation.

  • Otter@lemmy.ca
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    10 days ago

    If my understanding is correct

    With Islam, the deity is meant to have no gender and the use of “he” has more to do with the nuances of Arabic language

    With Christianity, there is more anthropomorphism and the deity is seen as a father figure in comparison to everything else

  • Chris@feddit.uk
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    10 days ago

    Greek, Roman, Norse gods had a mix of male and female, although I think “head god” was still male.

    In Hindu there is also a mix, although I’m not sure if they are all equal or one is in charge.

    Shinto has animal gods (I’m again unsure if there is a particular “head god” or whether they are male or female, but at least it probably isn’t “a man”).

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Hindu is complex and has some variability depending on the flavor. Some are left up to the individual to determine based on their perceptions.

      The supreme being is genderless, the other aspects are more masculine or more feminine and some are androgenous or both. Feminine energy is the most powerful at creation and masculine is the most powerful at destruction. The gods are just a reflection of an aspect of the supreme genderless Brahman, where their characteristics favor a given gender and that is expressed in their visage. They also use names that convey a symbolism.

      So no gender is the most powerful in Hindu, but different forms of gender expression have more power in an aspect of power.

    • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
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      10 days ago

      Shinto’s “head god” was Izanagi, who was very much a man.

      But there were plenty of very powerful feminine gods anyway. And Izanagi was the head in more a ‘fathered the others’ way than anything.

      • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        Shinto’s Izanagi wasn’t really the “head god” I thought? He was the creator deity, and fathered the rest but that’s true for Ouranos in Greek myth and I don’t think he’d be considered a primary deity at all.

        From my understanding that was Amaterasu. Wikipedia agrees, for whatever that’s worth.

        Often considered the chief deity (kami) of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan’s earliest literary texts, the Kojiki

        I don’t really know of any other solid examples of a female-led pantheon, though.

        • Dojan@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          It’s a little more complicated than that. Izanami and Izanagi both created a lot of gods together. They descended from the heavens and using a spear in the waters of creation, Izanagi created land. The both of them aren’t the original gods though.

          Izanami and Izanagi are the last of the seven generations of gods, the Kamiyonanayo. Before them came the Kotoamatsukami, all coming into existence in solitude in Takamanohara at the creation of the universe.

          • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
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            9 days ago

            It’s a little more complicated than that.

            I’ve been interested in mythologies for a long time and in my experience this phrase literally always applies.

            But I didn’t actually know most of that, really interesting! Thank you.