my old philo paper

i got a grade of five with this
philosophy paper
thanks bonjing for helping me
with my gramming!

The image of God in the Feminine image

If the image of God is in the feminine image, how would that change the order of things? The first possibility is that this will empower women in the world. There were many ancient religions that worshipped Goddesses. In Ancient Egypt, Isis, a female, was worshipped. It was during these times that queens ruled the lands. During the gradual shift to a patriarchal community, many unjust judgments were placed upon women in the whole world. For example, there were increased number of ‘witches’ that were persecuted just because for being suspiciously powerful. Women cannot vote in ancient Greece. It can be said that women were overthrown in this period of time. Thus, I believe if God continued to be portrayed as a woman, then there will be less discrimination against women. Women will be more powerful in society, or will have at least more confidence.

The second possibility is that there will be no change in the bias among the equality of women and men. At one point, one gender will be more powerful than the other. People will soon see that God does not have a gender. That God is so powerful that he is beyond gender. I believe that religion was forced to portray God as a man previously because it was the men who were powerful then. If the church portrayed God as a female, then it won’t be accepted by the people and that certain religion will not spread. I believe that today, with majority of the world’s religion having male gods, we are still living in the patriarchal society. However, we are breaking some of the patriarchal norms- we have women presidents, we have women saints, we have women philosophers. Thus, if we grew up to be in a matriarchal society with women gods, then it is a possibility that in the future this matriarchal society will be broken. We will soon have men presidents, men saints, and men philosophers. It is just a cycle because religion has an evolving nature.

However having a mind set of engaging God into a doubtful question of His sexuality and perceiving God using the word FEMININE linked to His image makes me assert that one who questions this has a weak faith in God. God has no sexuality at all, for reasons that no one could ever ought to clarify nor to discuss about.

As for me, putting God in a scenario wherein He is perceived as a feminine or a masculine image is blasphemous. I or any living creature in this world manifests an intolerable act when talking about irrelevant issues about God regarding His sexuality or anything that gives doubt to His image or power for example. For me, expressing or involving Him in such violating manners shows disrespect to God. There are certain things and reasons to support my assertions. First, we don’t contain the things that God has in mind. No one could ever describe or tell what God really is since our words are limited to explain and express God’s sexuality. We are not as powerful as his mind is. We cannot convey the thinking that he has designed for Himself and for everyone else as well. He is a God who has the power of all things. We as humans created by Him have genders and God isn’t as what humans are because He is above all things.

What I am pointing out is that, there are statements or facts that our minds, as humans, cannot reach and one of these facts is the truth about God’s sexuality. It all depends in our faith. The topic is unfathomable since it’s too deep to be measured and so mysterious or complicated that understanding is impossible. It is not right to put God in an image concerning His sexuality since there could never be an explanation and clarification for this. Another thing is based from the book of Genesis. Perhaps, as we notice in our daily prayers, we start it as, “Our Father…” or “God the Son”. For some people they magnify this that our God has a masculine or male image. As for me, this is not clearly true. God demonstrates Himself as something that shows that He is the head of all things; and that, a human He had created is the body. Going back to the book of Genesis, God first created man whom He called Adam. God designed or appointed Adam (a man/ a masculine) as the head of the family. In other words, a man is created to become a leader. But yet, God also created Eve (a woman/ feminine) to whom God appointed to be the person of help to the man in leading His family. Perhaps, as we all witness, the Pope is a man. This should be how God should be seen and realized. “Our Father” when started out in our prayers doesn’t mean that God is depicted as a gender of a male. This just creates an understanding for us that God is the head of everything. A leader. Our savior. The head of the body.

The last thing is about patriarchal society with regards to God. Before, when our country or almost all the countries all over the world living to the distant past, patriarchal society conquered the cities. That is very popular during those times. Perhaps, going back to what I have discussed earlier, a man is portrayed as the head of everything and a woman as the helper to the leader. It was always the man who was in power yet women were all along next to the man. As we can see, our dads and fathers of the family are usually the decision makers, disciplinarians and the ones who rule the family. They are also breadwinners and strive in working to feed his family while wives usually stays at home and attends to the needs of the family members. In making decisions for example, the wives always consults their husbands and husbands always has the final decision whether in favor of his wife’s or contradicts it.

Therefore God has no gender, God is eternal and we are the literal children of God. For me God is not either a male or a female. I don’t want to change what people already know about or God. Maybe it is a call for us to balance our awareness in our God. That can bring innate beauty and spirit in us to empower the women but yet according to God has design for us.