Subject:
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Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sun, 5 Mar 2000 01:27:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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1033 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Todd Lehman writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Peter Callaway writes:
> > Dan Boger wrote:
> > > well now. I've decided years ago that if there is such a thing as god,
> > > I'd refer to it as a she, just because that will make things more
> > > interesting. I never said that said God is the one mentioned in the
> > > Bible, or the Koran, or the Tora... as my wife rightly points out, who
> > > cares what chromosomes God has, if it's xx or xy? why would god even
> > > have a gender?
> >
> > You've decided that God is a she just to make things more interesting.
> > That's about as rational as me calling you "Rebecca" just to make things
> > more interesting. You may say that's OK, I can call you what I want, but
> > the fact remains that it is not who you are. Calling someone by a different
> > name or different gender just to make things interesting is arrogant.
>
> Say, this bring up an interesting point (for me, anyway). I'm curious about
> something...
>
> Over my lifetime, I've heard God referred to as He millions of times, and in
> more recent years, occasionally I've heard Him referred to as She, but I
> don't think I've ever heard God referred to yet as It or Thon.
>
> To a theist, would someone referring to God as It (rather than He) be
> considered insulting, or would it be flattering since it acknowledged that
> God is more than human and doesn't necessarily need a gender?
>
> A second question -- which is more insulting: She or It? That is, is it
> worse for God to be female than to be genderless?
>
> --Todd
To answer your first question, Christians refer to God as "He" and "Father"
because that's how Jesus referred to Him. Since we believe that Jesus is the
Son of God, then it is natural to expect Him to know the correct way to
address God. I have never thought of referring to God as "it", nor whether it
would be insulting or not, but the fact is that Jesus refers to God as "He",
so we do to.
Recent referral to God as "She" (I got the capital "S" this time ;-) is
nothing more than political correctness gone wrong. I stand by my statement
that nowhere in the Bible does it refer to God as "She", and I'll address
Dan's statement about this following his post.
For your second question, I think it would be equally insulting, as Jesus has
already told us how we should address God. To do otherwise is to say "I think
Jesus was wrong", which for a Christian is fundamentally against Christianity.
Pete Callaway
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
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| (...) I don't mean to beat a dead horse on this issue, but I would insist that it is "some Christians" or "most Christians" that refer to God this way. Pete implies that ALL do, and that is just not the case. Calling God a male is not a prereq for (...) (24 years ago, 5-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
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| (...) Say, this bring up an interesting point (for me, anyway). I'm curious about something... Over my lifetime, I've heard God referred to as He millions of times, and in more recent years, occasionally I've heard Him referred to as She, but I (...) (24 years ago, 4-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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