Dear Banjo,

God Himself/Herself has no shape or form or gender and cannot be described at all, but as human weaklings who are on their early to middle stages of their journey towards God, are yet unable to relate to God directly and need to be inspired by more tangible representations, they create and select the most personally-appealing forms to worship.

The choice between gods and goddesses thus depends on what is most appealing to the devotee's heart.

It appears that in the male-chauvinistic Middle-Eastern culture where the Abrahamic religions developed, especially before the time of Jesus, women were not much appreciated or admired, thus the Abrahamic god was portrayed as male/Father. This was reasonable and fine for them, but today when women are more highly regarded, some devotees can be more inspired by goddess forms.

God cannot be divided, but His/Her functions in the world can, in many ways. The Christian Trinity is one such valid way.

Similarly in Hinduism, God's functioning in the world was divided along the lines of creation, preservation and dissolving, which are respectively represented by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. However, these functions cannot be performed without their corresponding feminine aspects: Brahma's consort is Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom and learning; Vishnu's consort is Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and fortune; and Shiva's consort is Parvati/Shakti, the goddess of power.

The Holy Spirit provides wisdom, prosperity and strength, thus the Christian path already has a perfect feminine form to worship.

I cannot but conclude with this prayer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zasyz-tJkOg

Dear Yuyutsu,

>>The Holy Spirit provides wisdom, prosperity and strength, thus the Christian path already has a perfect feminine form to worship.<<

I agree, and perhaps this extends also to Judaism:

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Yahweh moved upon the face of the waters.

I am being told that in Hebrew Ruah Yahweh (the Spirit of Yahweh) is of feminine grammatical gender. I got this answer from a theologian when I asked him about the Yin aspect of the Abrahamic God.

Hebrew ruah is female in grammar.
Stephen Hawking said time can run backwards then he reversed that - it only runs forward . Another paradigm is that females become pregnant following male input , not preceding female-projected zygosis. Maybe people think that gods are made in man's image / woman's image . Napoleon said thank you when a person told him it's a fine day , like John Denver was responsible for making one .
However , the majority view inclines to God getting credit or at least claiming it as a male. A man-cave has male stuff and the male God's Spirit is testosterone with attitude . New Jerusalem is a cube with 12 gates and Peter has keys and it's Christ's bride . He's a Lamb and is subject to the Father as a wife is subject to husband . So the Father has a female universe

Actually, the word 'Ruach' (spirit/wind) is on a list of 20 exceptional Hebrew nouns that can be both male and female.

There are very powerful nouns on that list, including: 'sun', 'time', 'universe', 'way', 'field', 'aspect', and 'abyss'. Interestingly also 'tongue' and 'knife'.

Countries and war-ships can be female in grammar and cyclones were.
French "north wind" is male le vent du nord or female la bis. It powers wind-turbines for female l'electricite in power-station male
marteau-pilon . Greek pneuma is neuter in grammar. Bank-notes are male billet de female banque.
Italian spirito is whatever you choose.

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Dear Yuyutsu, Dear George,

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Yuyutsu wrote :

« God Himself/Herself has no shape or form or gender and cannot be described at all … human weaklings …create … the most personally-appealing forms to worship … gods and goddesses … depends on what is most appealing … »

Am I right in interpreting this to mean that “god is simply a figment of the imagination” ? If so, I could not agree more !

If, on the other hand, you are convinced that your description of “God” is based on fact, then perhaps you would be kind enough to let me have the relevant references. I cannot understand how I could possibly have overlooked such an important discovery. So far, I am only aware of concepts and "revelations" of religious believers.
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Yuyutsu continued :

« … before the time of Jesus, women were not much appreciated or admired, thus the Abrahamic god was portrayed as male/Father … »

I regret to have to say that that is a gross understatement, Yuyutsu. Women were not only considered to be inferior to men, they were considered to be their legal property and often treated as their servants or, even worse, their slaves.

In my previous posts, I indicated that, much to my regret, the monotheistic religions continue to perpetuate this macho attitude, the Christian concept of the trinity being an evident example. I also regretted the fact that, as recently as March 2017 ( not just “before the time of Jesus” as you suggest), Pope Francis denounced “male chauvinism” and declared that “the equal dignity of men and women makes us rejoice to see old forms of discrimination disappear”, but mentioned not a word about the Catholic concept of the trinity.
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Finally, I understand that because you believe that the “Holy Spirit” provides “wisdom, prosperity and strength”, you both consider that its gender is necessarily female.

Perhaps you would be kind enough to explain to me the reason for this believe as I must confess that it has never occurred to me that those attributes were exclusively female.

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