We have different kinds of religions all over the world, which means that we have different kinds of gods. In India we can find a true blend of quite a lot of religions and thus there are hundreds of male and female gods here. Our gods belong to a specific gender- whether it be Krishna or Durga. But universally, god is often mentioned as male. Why is it so?
Why gendered pronouns?
There have been a lot of conflicts regarding the gender of god since centuries. As per Greek philosophy, god represents perfection and flawless power. There is no impression of god of having a specific gender. But religions firmly believe that god is male and uses the pronoun ‘He, Him or His’ to refer to god. The strongest example is that of Christianity in which Jesus Christ is considered as the son of god and god is none other than the supreme father. Some believers say that god is referred to as ‘He’ since it is not quite right to call god ‘it’. If at all this issue is related to the choice of a proper pronoun, then god can be a female as much as a male.
Then why are people being indisposed of using a feminine pronoun to mention about god? The answer is uncomplicated- they simply get upset with the idea of god being a female. They may also have the conception that even if god turns out to be genderless, it is better and desirable to bestow masculine attributes as feminine qualities suggest god of a ‘negative’ breed. They somehow believe that masculine characteristics are always ‘positive’.
Though Christianity postulates that all of Jesus’ followers were male; it is not true. Jesus had several female followers like Mary Magdalene, Susanne and Joanna and Bible essentially holds proof to it, though in a concealed way. There is no ambiguity regarding the sex of Christ. But this is not the same with god. How can god be completely male, and still be androgynous? The answer is Simple. We MADE it so. We decided the gender of god. ‘We’ here resembles the larger group that comprises of male members.
Who and what is god?
God is a universal spirit and has no specific physical manifestation as such. God is present everywhere and is not bound by time, place or even gender. God is in you as much as elsewhere. If you prefer god to be male, then god is. If you prefer god to be female then god can really be so. Did you know that the term ‘Lord’ means ‘Yahweh’ that referred to gods and goddesses alike?
Then who turned god into a male?
The men (you guessed right) who took the responsibility of documenting the word and deed of god, thousands of years before, were prejudiced that women were somehow inferior. They felt that someone as superior as god should not be attributed any feminine quality for this cause. But time has passed progressively ever since and it is now better to mention about god in a more refined way to give a pause to the stereotyping of god.
