As I read the Greek mythologies in the past, I was struck by the rather amoral nature of almost all of their deities, male or female. I found that none of them appealed to my sense of an entity to whom I would look for succor. That said, I tend to agree that, if one must believe in a creative presence in the universe, it need not be assigned a gender except for convenience of discussion. I have found that my fundamentalist friends get really upset when I refer to God as "It." That, of course, makes it all the more fun to do so.

While I tend to agree with much of what you say, I am a little disturbed by the tendency of late to seem to push beyond the level of equality of the sexes. I guess one might justify this because of the centuries of female subjugation, however, subjugating others for whatever reason is not right nor good.

Finally, I believe it a very slippery slope indeed to ascribe some human characteristics to female and others to male. That is every bit as inappropriate as ascribing sex to God. Many men are incredibly nurturing and many women are incredibly judgemental and punitive (check out the actions of many women in power positions in corporate America). The point is that we should all interact with each other with compassion, courtesy and tolerance. These are human characteristics that could go a long way toward easing some of the problems in our world and nation.

I suspect that you have a point here. When the APA was considering language use, they pointed to a great number of studies which showed that sexist language actually harmed girls. That's why the APA standards require gender-neutral language. The same harms could well apply to religious terminology.

Well, my first reaction is, why have a "god" in the first place?

It was all well and good for primitive societies that had no idea of how the universe worked to create weather, how the sun rose and set, what made the tides, how the seasons came and went and why, etc.

But our modern scientifically based society knows these things. We KNOW that no god is required to usher the sun across the sky in a golden chariot, so we worship no sun god. We KNOW what causes lightening, so we don't bother to worship some white bearded god that supposedly throws lightening bolts at those he dislikes. We have a much better idea of how the universe itself began and developed, so we really don't need a bronze aged sky fairy to explain what we already know.

Many past societies were not as misogynistic as the modern Abrahamic religions are today. (Yeah, I know that the Jewish part isn't as bad as the other two, but they still, in the old Orthodox temples, separate men and women, and women can't read from the Torah, among other misogynistic crap.)

If you want to blame someone for this, blame the old christian bishops in the late 2nd century as they dismantled the then-current practices that allowed females to head churches (mostly at Paul's urging, see many of the Pauline letters), and good ole' Mohammed for doing the same in his incarnation of god worship.

Almost all of the old "pagan" religions had female deities that were as powerful as the males, and practiced a balanced worship of both sexes, as they recognized that the largely agrarian lives they led required both sexes to act as a team to raise a family, collect or raise food for the table and protect the family from predators. Traditional human nuclear families do NOT require the female to be subservient to the male, but assign gender specific roles based largely upon biological functions - and those functions both require the support and mutual cooperation of both sexes to properly nurture the family unit. Each is fully dependent upon the other to be successful. The religions of the past recognized this, and created male and female gods and goddesses to account for this cooperative symbiosis.

Our modern society, with its technological labor saving devices, have largely leveled the playing field in much of the sex based role assignments as seen in traditional human cultures. Women are capable of "bringing home the bacon" largely without the need for the larger, stronger musculature of the male; men can feed the baby without the biological necessity for the female breast. Social structures such as police and fire departments and modern weapons such as firearms have largely replaced the need for males to be readily armed and prepared to defend the family unit using physical strength alone. Thank Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson for that!

So role models today are not based upon the traditional sex based roles dependent upon the different secondary sex characteristics of men and women, but are blending and merging into something much less differentiated.

But to answer the original question, yeah, "god the father", DOES result in the suppression of women. Toss the sucker out!

well, rwahrens, good points. But I suppose the answer is that having God, misogynistic or not, helps people cope with their existence. having something to believe in, i.e. some deity or greater power helps people cope with things that happen in life. it helps them make sense of death, of suffering, etc. Many people feel the need to question their existence--human existence in general-when they think they are alone in the universe.

My answer to that is that you are not alone - you have billions of other humans here with you, sharing your pain, your joy and your life's experiences and adding their own unique viewpoints. What could be better than that? It is certainly better than being told by your sky fairy that you are a sinner, worthy only of eternal damnation without that sky-fairy's largesse. Talk about self-esteem smack-downs!

Humanity has learned that it takes others to help one cope with life's little disappointments - and especially the big ones. Religious people often ascribe their successful healing (mental and otherwise) to their god - but really, it is simply the community that gathers around them that actually provides the active assistance, comfort and guidance to get them through a bad experience.

A good example. My nephew's wife is a cancer survivor, and recently had her second reconstructive surgery. We communicate often, as a family, on Facebook, and the news feed was full, for the last three days, of her family and friends giving her support, comfort and helpful hints as to how to cope. And this was just the online stuff - not to include the in person calls, visits and flowers that came as well. Yes, they are very religious, and there was a lot of talk about prayers, etc., in the posts. But I'd bet that she got much more comfort from those calls, visits, flowers and Facebook entries then she ever could have gotten from some amorphous feeling of well-being from a non-existant sky fairy.

Yeah, I am sure that it is easier to cope with the senselessness of a young mother getting cancer and going through over a year of horrific therapy (twice!) as a god-induced "test" of her faith than to realize and cope with the thought that it more than likely came from some chemical, food or lifestyle choice she exposed herself to, or was exposed to by some unknown third party.

But not all of us are strong enough to break a lifetime of indoctrination, especially the kind that makes us feel unworthy - and women, in christianity, are especially unworthy!