Friends, I wonder whether the world began to go downhill from the moment that God was generally accepted as being a solitary male.
Of course, in primitive times, God was not exclusively male. There were animal gods, male and female gods, a whole menagerie of weird and wonderful theological fantasies were created and devoutly worshiped. The very number of them kept people on their toes and stopped them fixating on one.
But slowly and surely we began the march towards the domination of one ‘Big Fella In The Sky’ who just happened to be male as were those who professed to know all about him and talk to him. The result? The main ‘Big Fellas’ today are God, Jehovah, and Allah and those who believe in him are the principal players in most of the wars that rage all over the world.
However, the Festival of the Hindu Goddess Durga reveals one of the older female gods which is still worshiped in parts of India. She is the one with all the arms who is having some paint applied to her anatomy.
She has ten arms and a kindly face and doesn’t look like the type of god who would go around smiting people, having them swallowed by whales, drowning them in floods, sending pestilence down upon them, turning them into pillars of salt, forcing them to burn forever in hell, etc.
No, she looks like she is more interested in being happy, being fertile, being affectionate, perhaps even having a little drink now and again, telling a joke or two, winking at appropriate moments and able to suckle babies and change nappies all at the same time.
How much different the world might have been if Durga had become the ‘Big Fella!’ We might have had a peaceful, love-filled world, one without nuclear weapons, hate, racism, bigotry, greed, killing, phosphorous munitions, torture…
Male gods are bad news. Let’s make happy, peaceful Durga our spiritual icon.
What say you?
Yeah but… You don’t like females like NotSoHilarious Clinton and Condosleeza Rica, right?
Or Barbara Bush? And her not so “beautiful mind…”
On March 18, 2003, two days before the beginning of the war on Iraq, ABC’s Good Morning America asked her about her family’s television viewing habits; she replied:
“I watch none. He [former President Bush] sits and listens and I read books, because I know perfectly well that, don’t take offense, that 90 percent of what I hear on television is supposition, when we’re talking about the news. And he’s not, not as understanding of my pettiness about that. But why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it’s gonna happen, and how many this or that or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that, and watch him suffer.”
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David G Reply:
May 8th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Charles, surely not all women are like the ones you mention!
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David
No matter what sex a deity is claimed to be, there will always a religious opposite that see’s things differently which inevitably would lead to a clash. The sex of a deity is not relevant factor, but religion itself and they way people have interpreted their diety’s teachings and thence trying to impose their morale, cultural and religious belief of their religion on others. India is unique with gods coming out of the wood work, even Schin Tendulkar is declared a living god. However the Indian method of religion with all it’s gods is not perfect as highlighted by the clashes between Hinduism and Islam which contributed to the partition of India into Pakistan and India and to a less extent Sri Lanka. As you know the two dominant religions of the former Indian Colony still clash today and always will regardless of deity’s sex.
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There are also terrible female goddesses like Kali who devourers her lover while having sex, but she is also a fertility goddess. Many of the earlier gods and goddesses were more complex with both life and death aspects. The male only ones seem to be mostly about death and only death. The fertile mother’s life giving, fecund side has been either forgotten or made sinful.
It is the same way the female half of humanity is ignored. So much is lost when the feminine is not a part of the whole.
Some will say that Jesus is about life, but it is not a earthly life and it is not a women who gives someone birth to that life but a man. Plus, you must have faith that your eternal life will happen.
We need a female goddess to balance the gods of war. The blood of birth, which in the jewish religion is considered sinful, must replace the blood of “heroes” who kill the innocent.
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I m with you David i like the idea of a godess instead of a remote mean patriarch.But in my own personal beliefs i believe in balance.Which is absent in the major beliefs in the world.male and female are equal one is not inferior to the other .The male dominated relegions seem to fear women in some older societies woman were healers and had great wisdom for the people.Thats why a great deal were burned as witches they were the last holdouts against control of the kingdoms. Thus a tribe or village was a self sufficient entity wichis a threat to empire building and “civilization”. Just remember belief has a lie in the middle be(lie)f
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Kemosobi, of course one of the clashing religions in India is Islam, one of the big three!
Jeannie, we are still primitive creatures, believing in gods, raping and killing, mostly greedy and amoral. I don’t think we’ll ever change regardless of our gods.
Jeff, I like that last sentence of yours.
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I think that’s great idea , David, as we agree that too much work ( physically struggle) isn’t what add much meaning to life. therefore the more arms women have to their disposal, the less struggle will be left over the male part, to do. Can she manage the lawn(mover)cutter at the same time suckling (twin) babies ? . I can not see any problems – – - or can life really be so easy ? – I maybe ask to be born anew.
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So many times I have wished I had 8 arms! Durga is an awesome exmple for all of us. You did not know David that I have beautiful statue of Durga who is looking at me right now. There were times when I was active in the Church that I thought I shoud give this statue away. I am glad i still have it after all. She sits upon her tiger, her familiar , with her perfect goddess posture. She helps me because in her statue form as she is always IN the present moment. At any given moment she is in the form I should hold myself and this way and more she insprires me. I once had a dream about her tiger. I had a job where I worked with only one other person and this person was abusive to me. He kind of looked like one of the skulls that Kali would wear around her neck, ..so, I would imagine my co-worker’s head getting chopped off and put on Kali’s necklace- it used to make me feel all better – until- Durga’s tiger came to visit me! It was a warning. Durga stood in the front door of a small wooden house. She stayed put, but her tiger walked over to me. It was huge and fierce and suddenly it wasn’t even a dream anymore. I laid down prone, face up, and the tiger leaped over me and I saw its huge tiger belly pass over me. It did it again and a third time. It threatened to cross again, but then it would no longer be a warning. The message was clear. I had no business using the power of prayer for someone’s demise and if I did not stop it, her tiger WOULD devour me. The tiger causally walked back to Durga’s side. Durga never left her front porch. That is how powerful she is. She is the daughter of Kali. She was created because there was a demon so huge that the men could not destroy it. SO they pleaded for Kali to help them. Kali created Durga. Durga destryed the demon – and so she is the most powerful deity. I used to feel intimidated by the statue, but I am glad it stuck with me these years. Jai Durga.
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John, I wouldn’t push that line too hard or you might be the subject of some female ire!
Grace, what an interesting account! The demon that men cannot destroy is within themselves.
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Thanks for this report, David. The Old Testament is full of stories re those ancients, that we call jews, destroying goddesses and other ‘craven images’and replacing them with an authoritarian vengeful god in the sky that had chosen them as his special humans, with dominion over all, or something like that. According to Paul Craig Roberts, once the Hate Crime Bill goes into effect, my making this comment in a critical fashion, could be considered a crime.
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And re Mr. Macfarlane’s comment, each of thos e three women are women who are attached to monstrous men, Clinton and Bush, Sr., and Bush, Jr.
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David, are you advocating deity’s as long as they aren’t swinging meat? You’re tending to piss me off now bro!
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David G Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Perhaps you could provide a few words of explanation that might clear up exactly what this comment is all about, VR2?
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In my neck of the woods that’s plain English but I appreciate your request for clarity. After possibly one too many 12 oz curls, budweisers, I began to see this particular blog and the comments as a mishmash of all the religious dogma that thinking human beings should be striving to get out from under, just one more big teat to nurse from. So, rather than add anything constructive, I chose to rant, which I am quite prone to do, while self-medicating. Swinging meat is a less than gentlemanly reference to the male gods under discussion, and pissed at my brother is, more or less, a way of life for me as I struggle to maintain a semblance of civility when I would much prefer to SCREAM BLOODY MURDER! Keep up your good works. It wasn’t my intention to slow you down.
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Keep in mind that I’m on your side, VR2!
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