I don't understand!?

Question

I go to a privit Catholic Middle School (St.Anthony's)and every Friday we have mass in our church, and I hear them tell me
"Thanx be to our father God.Thats fine but why Father. No one has die and gone to heaven and come back to tell the tale other than Jesus, so who are we to guess that God is a man?Why not a women or both, since they say we are all made in the image of God, we all, not we all men.

Answer 1

don't be stuck on one word -- believe in the concept...god is within you

Answer 2

The image of a male God has been perpetuated by a patriarchal society in order to control the masses and create a fear-based society in which women are suppressed.

Try researching some sites on the Mother God such as the one below. Many groups, such as the Gnostics and Novus Spiritus believe in a dual male/female entity.

http://www.novus.org/home/godfemale.cfm

Personally, I believe that God is a genderless energy source which comprises all of life, rather than a being in the form of an old man with a grey beard, sitting on a throne in some heaven in the sky, judging us.

God is LIFE, and God is within, not without.

Answer 3

Think about the doctrines of the church in relation to women. Women are not allowed to be priests, Gods representatives on Earth. Women are to be subservient to their husbands, as the church is subservient to God. Man was made in Gods image, then Woman was made from Man. A woman led Adam into original sin. The list goes on...

With doctrines like these, it is obvious that the church believes men to be superior to women, hence, God is a man, not a woman, even though, as you say, no one has ever actually seen God and came back to tell about it. The only person who did come back to tell about it, Jesus, called God "Father" (although the apostles, all men, told that story).

Answer 4

the idea religion wants to give of god is of a man with a white beard sitting on a cloud in heaven (which is up there, of course) and looking over our good and evil acts and judging...

my experience of God has been blissfulness and made heaven come down here. They say God is everywhere. if he is everywhere, then he must be within us also.

my point is: there is a huge difference between knowing and believing. do you believe you have two hands or do you KNOW you have 2 hands? if you want to experience the boundlessness and unlimited joy and bliss that GOD is, you need the right tools. you cant go to the moon with a bullock cart and you cant experience God unless you make your body, mind and whole being receptive to that which makes everything happen in this existence...

if you wish to experience, start by visiting this website: www.ishayoga.org

Answer 5

Perhaps because Jesus was a man. Since The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are essentially one, God would have to be a man. Good question.

Answer 6

Okay, God made man in his likeness, right? So, in the beginning, what did He make first, Man or woman? It is known to everyone that He created Adam first, a male, so it is not hard to understand that God is male. He only made Eve because He saw that Adam was lonely and did not make Eve in His likeness but in the likeness of Adam as He took a rib from Adam's side give breath to it, thus Eve.

Answer 7

Yeah I would agree to what you mean about us being all men since in the bible states that we came from the rib of the man to make a woman come through to help man. So I understand how it's all confusing to all of us and it's a nice question for you to bring up and for us to really take the time to wonder and ask ourselves if it's true.

Answer 8

As we say in the United Church of Christ:

"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; One God, Mother of us all."

Answer 9

We have a limited options of how to address God. It can be he, she, or it. It is disrespectful, and he is more powerful than she, and therefore, we had to chose one of them that seems and sounds has the most authorities, and that ended up to be HE. It doesn't mean God is a male or female, it only means we had to pick which one can be more of the utmost leader. We were created in his image, not his gender, for God doesn't have a gender, color, or creed.

I hope that helped :)

Answer 10

Because Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father.

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Jesus is God incarnate.

Answer 11

Well, my mother is Christian and she believes that God is sexless. Where as I am Pagan and worship both the feminine and masculine as separate deities.

I think God is whomever or whatever you make "him" to be. Go with what feels right in your heart.