I don't assign any particular pronoun to God; I do believe God is "just God" and is above and outside sex. I think the pronoun "He" is applied to God for the authority that comes with the male figure (yes, that may sound sexist, but it's the truth, or at least, has been in history), as well as for simple ease of conversation.
English doesn't have an all-gender pronoun, besides. God encompasses both male and female. If you're coming from a Christian point of view, there's that part in the Bible where it says "he created them in his own image; male and female he created them" (or something; I haven't had to memorize Bible verses in years). Therefore, the whole image of God includes both male and female.
(And in fact, there was once a female counterpart to God in Judaism; they just don't talk about her much anymore. A Jewish friend of mine found this out while doing some research and brought it up to her rabbi. He got intense and practically bit her head off. "Who told you that?!" and she told him she'd done some research, and he said "We don't talk about that anymore". It's sort of a weird open secret in some circles, apparently. A search for "Jewish goddess" on Google brings up a number of interesting links, including this one.)
But English just has she, he, and it. And the masculine doubles as gender-neutral.
Well....all I can say is "wow". I agree totally with everything said in this entry! Down to the last word!
I think that people tend to want to feel as though we, as humans, have the power and the control and that there's nothing that can surpass our intelligence. Like we are the smartest things out there and surrendering to a God that is much greater than ourselves makes a lot of people feel...insignificant and powerless. But aren't we? God has all the power and in comparison to Him, we are insignificant. That's why it is such an amazing gift that He should love us so much! Each and every one of us!
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Just God.
Nothing else. At all.
Sit and think. Ponder that.
I hate to sound like a raging feminist, but why is God a he? Why can't it be, as you said, Just God?
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(And in fact, there was once a female counterpart to God in Judaism; they just don't talk about her much anymore. A Jewish friend of mine found this out while doing some research and brought it up to her rabbi. He got intense and practically bit her head off. "Who told you that?!" and she told him she'd done some research, and he said "We don't talk about that anymore". It's sort of a weird open secret in some circles, apparently. A search for "Jewish goddess" on Google brings up a number of interesting links, including this one.)
But English just has she, he, and it. And the masculine doubles as gender-neutral.
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Just God.
Nothing else. At all.
Whatever happened to the primeval chaos?
You don't hear enough about that these days.
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I think that people tend to want to feel as though we, as humans, have the power and the control and that there's nothing that can surpass our intelligence. Like we are the smartest things out there and surrendering to a God that is much greater than ourselves makes a lot of people feel...insignificant and powerless. But aren't we? God has all the power and in comparison to Him, we are insignificant. That's why it is such an amazing gift that He should love us so much! Each and every one of us!
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