Can Males and Females truly share the same religion?

[Brickjectivity]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

I suppose that if a religion were very limited then they could share it, but I'm not talking about just sitting in a park feeding the birds. I'm talking about lifelong commitment and practice and about the ways men and women perceive things differently, grow up differently, choose different activities and have different responsibilities.

Even if you disagree, consider what if the answer were yes? Would this change the way you do things?

 

[Spirit of Light]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

I suppose that if a religion were very limited then they could share it, but I'm not talking about just sitting in a park feeding the birds. I'm talking about lifelong commitment and practice and about the ways men and women perceive things differently, grow up differently, choose different activities and have different responsibilities.

Even if you disagree, consider what if the answer were yes? Would this change the way you do things?

Spiritual life and spiritual lifestyle is a personal path, meaning even in a relationship with two people there will always be differences, we have our own understanding of the teaching, our own struggles we battle every day. so even we follow the same spiritual teaching, it made for both genders, and it is normal that we understand the teaching differently.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Spiritual life and spiritual lifestyle is a personal path, meaning even in a relationship with two people there will always be differences, we have our own understanding of the teaching, our own struggles we battle every day. so even we follow the same spiritual teaching, it made for both genders, and it is normal that we understand the teaching differently.

In that case doesn't it make more sense to have two sets of teachings specifically directed towards the two? If they read it differently then won't one group be favored by this arrangement?

 

[columbus]

Yes.
A simple answer to a simple question.

It just can't be a traditional Abrahamic religion.
Problem solved. Just ask us non-theists if you have any more.
Tom

 

[Spirit of Light]

In that case doesn't it make more sense to have two sets of teachings specifically directed towards the two? If they read it differently then won't one group be favored by this arrangement?

In my understanding, No we do not need two sets of teachings, because we are not the same and will never be the same, two people of same sex will see the teaching differently, no matter if it is male or female. The teachings are for personal growth and personal awakening in spirituality. it is not a group thing. so yes we will all end up on different level of awakening/understanding of the teaching, but that is because we are individuals not a group that must understand it 100% the same way

 

[Brickjectivity]

Yes.
A simple answer to a simple question.

It just can't be a traditional Abrahamic religion.
Problem solved. Just ask us non-theists if you have any more.
Tom

About traditional Abrahamic religion? No, I will ask the various otter people about that. They may have some otter information.

I'm sure you probably know some stuff about being an RC Catholic, though. You probably know a couple of things that nobody else does, but...to me it kind of seems like the girls and the boys get very different religious experiences in the RC. What do you think?

 

[columbus]

About traditional Abrahamic religion? No, I will ask the various otter people about that. They may have some otter information.

I'm sure you probably know some stuff about being an RC Catholic, though. You probably know a couple of things that nobody else does, but...to me it kind of seems like the girls and the boys get very different religious experiences in the RC. What do you think?

Ha ha ha!

When I get done laughing at your autocorrect changing "other" to "otter" I'll reengage. But you probably don't know what otter means to us old gay guys, so it'll probably take a few.

Tom

 

[Estro Felino]

Well...having two different religions is a good thing, I think.
It means neither loses their uniqueness.

 

[epronovost]

I don't understand your question. Beside dianic wiccans (and even then) I don't know any religious faith that is monogender. Religions most often give different instructions, roles and commands to men, women and children. I find this incredibly stupid, but then again, to me, all religions are more or less ridiculous.


BTW why no talk about children since they are even more different from adults than men from women? Should they have their own religion too?

 

[Quintessence]

There's no nice way of putting this, so I'm just going to say it. If one is of the mind that males and females of the same species are so incredibly different that they'd need different religions, that represents some pretty substantial sexism. Different people are different. Their sex, in many cases, is pretty irrelevant in this equation. The only reason my upbringing was "different" than that of the other sex is because of sexism in my culture. It doesn't have to be that way, and frankly, I don't believe it should have been that way. I didn't fit in their sexist molds and that created a lot of problems for me as a kid. Adding religion on top of that? I probably wouldn't be alive to type this.

 

[Iymus]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

I suppose that if a religion were very limited then they could share it, but I'm not talking about just sitting in a park feeding the birds. I'm talking about lifelong commitment and practice and about the ways men and women perceive things differently, grow up differently, choose different activities and have different responsibilities.

Even if you disagree, consider what if the answer were yes? Would this change the way you do things?

If the ancient religion of quid quo pro was understood perhaps this question would not have been asked.

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

I suppose that if a religion were very limited then they could share it, but I'm not talking about just sitting in a park feeding the birds. I'm talking about lifelong commitment and practice and about the ways men and women perceive things differently, grow up differently, choose different activities and have different responsibilities.

Even if you disagree, consider what if the answer were yes? Would this change the way you do things?

I can only answer from my own experience.
My wife and I have the same religion.
We are very different and see things in this world very differently.
Some things, we cannot agree on. That’s ok.

But religious wise, we agree.
Anything that comes along that we don’t agree on means that one of us is seeing it wrong. We are both aware of that. We can discuss it, for as long as necessary, to arrive at an agreement. Which means, the apparent disagreement was just a step towards agreement.
Side note: It has been me who has needed correction most often.

 

[epronovost]

Side note: It has been me who has needed correction most often.

It's a long and proud tradition for husband to be most often wrong.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

I suppose that if a religion were very limited then they could share it, but I'm not talking about just sitting in a park feeding the birds. I'm talking about lifelong commitment and practice and about the ways men and women perceive things differently, grow up differently, choose different activities and have different responsibilities.

Even if you disagree, consider what if the answer were yes? Would this change the way you do things?

This isn't a problem in polytheism where you have deities of various genders and different gender expressions. Truly something for everyone.

 

[Brickjectivity]

There's no nice way of putting this, so I'm just going to say it. If one is of the mind that males and females of the same species are so incredibly different that they'd need different religions, that represents some pretty substantial sexism. Different people are different. Their sex, in many cases, is pretty irrelevant in this equation. The only reason my upbringing was "different" than that of the other sex is because of sexism in my culture. It doesn't have to be that way, and frankly, I don't believe it should have been that way. I didn't fit in their sexist molds and that created a lot of problems for me as a kid. Adding religion on top of that? I probably wouldn't be alive to type this.

Thanks, Quintessence.

We are the same species, and it could be that its sexist. That's certainly an easy mistake for me to make, but let me clarify in case I have not stated well enough what I am talking about by two religions. In multiple religions I see examples of different roles for men and women, and to me this can be defined as separate religions based upon sex. It may not though, but religions seem to be different to the different sexes. Judaism, for example, is completely different for men and women. Sikh religion is, too. Latter Day Saints seems to be as well. Roman Catholics seems that way. Do you believe, for ironclad reasons, that these are simply because of social programming? I notice that in order to call it sexist you define it as sexist, calling it what you think that it is. If I do the same thing and define religion by common practices then many religions seem like two. I'm not sure sexism explains it. It certainly explains some things.

Muslim women do X, and Muslim men do Y. Hindu women do X, and Hindu women do Y. The same goes for many, many other religions I think. This is true for endless centuries across many cultures. Why are the men and the women having such different religious experiences if the religions are the same? I'm not convinced that its down to sexism, because the men and women are separate sexes. Perhaps they also process the religions differently. Perhaps it affects them differently, and that indicates that they might need to be the way they are at least partly, not because of arbitrary social programming but for some reason that transcends it.

 

[Native]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

Of course they can and in fact they need to have a common religion. Males and females are not different as such, they are just 2 qualities which complement each other.

The very question about "if or if not" derives from the patriarchal Abrahamic religions which excluded the female part in the divine creation. In lots of other - and natural religions - it was a MUST to have both genders in order to explain the creation. (As in fact the Bible also had "once upon a time" but SHE got all the blame and was then thrown out of the divine equation) This "mental heritage" have caused unnatural divisions between the genders - of course together with the very materialistic world view in western cultures.

Summary: The qualities in females and males are complementary and not different.

 

[Shad]

If you wanted to have a very robust religion don't you think that it would really need to be 2 religions one for males and one for females? Poll: Yes/No ? Think about the relationships between men and women. They don't communicate the same way. They read everything differently. Some people (probably many people) give up on trying to be understood by the other sex. Some never try. Male and female seem to have different interests, a different focus, a different set of problems. Can they truly share the same religion? It seems more like they must have different religions.

I suppose that if a religion were very limited then they could share it, but I'm not talking about just sitting in a park feeding the birds. I'm talking about lifelong commitment and practice and about the ways men and women perceive things differently, grow up differently, choose different activities and have different responsibilities.

Even if you disagree, consider what if the answer were yes? Would this change the way you do things?

Both sexes can share the same religion regardless if that religion in question promotes equality or not. Humans are fully capable of fooling themselves into follow a religious narrative that is interpreted by one sex.

 

[crossfire]

I would think that a religion is stronger for embracing a wide variety of people in different stages of development and have them all get along.

 

[columbus]

I'm sure you probably know some stuff about being an RC Catholic, though. You probably know a couple of things that nobody else does, but...to me it kind of seems like the girls and the boys get very different religious experiences in the RC. What do you think?

Actually, yes.
One of the strengths of RCC is the wide range of revered(not worshipped, that's not allowed) saints. Mother Mary is the saintliest of all. For lots of people, and not just women, having a feminine figure to pray to makes prayer better, more tuned in, more fulfilling.

But that said, it's kinda hard to say that any two individuals completely share the same religion. So many of the components of any particular person's religious beliefs are fuzzy and matters of personal opinions and mental images that the likelihood of sitting in a pew next to someone who believes exactly what you do seems remote. You might use the same words to describe it, but that's not the same.
Tom

 

[Quintessence]

... let me clarify in case I have not stated well enough what I am talking about by two religions. In multiple religions I see examples of different roles for men and women, and to me this can be defined as separate religions based upon sex.

Thanks for the clarification.

I'm still not clear on how role differentiation qualifies as separate religions. In human organizations (religious or otherwise) there are often specialized roles to help divide up tasks and make the organization function. It is understood that these specialists are still part of the organization. They are suddenly some separate organization just because they have a particular role within that organization. Why would having a specialized role within a religion make one be a separate religion? That's part of what I'm not understanding. And I definitely don't understand why one would draw lines based on x-ist designators unless one wanted to reinforce those sorts of x-isms [where X = sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, etc.].

Why are the men and the women having such different religious experiences if the religions are the same?

To clarify an earlier point, people are different from one another and have different experiences (religious or otherwise) just in general. I really do not understand the fixation on what's between someone's legs on this. Two women can have different religious experiences from one another. Two men can have different religious experiences from one another. And intersexed people - yes, let's not forget they exist - can also have different religious experiences from one another. Different people have different experiences. I don't understand fixating on sex. Especially when doing so walks hard into the territory of sexism. I wouldn't understand it if this conversation was unnecessarily fixating on race, age, etc. either.

None of this is to say that there aren't some experiences (religious or otherwise) that are necessarily distinct based on human sexual dimorphism. However, as far as I'm aware, the Abrahamic religions really don't focus on any of those. Indigenous religions often do - rites of passage for puberty are obviously and necessarily different for the two sexes - but Abrahamic religions don't do that sort of thing. Nor do they really do fertility rituals like indigenous religions do, so... that's another reason I'm not following this "different sexes need different religion" thing. I don't see much reason to make the diversity of religious experiences about sex at all except in cases where practices are explicitly connected to sexual anatomy (which is rare). It's just so irrelevant in the vast majority of circumstances, especially in the Western world.