Created Male and Female

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I was wondering why God created us male and female. I started wondering when a priest spoke about how God created us this way out of love. I had a hard time understanding how this is loving. I mean not that it not loving, but I didn’t understand what the significance of this was. Other than the fact we can reproduce b/c we are created this way, why is it special?

I was talking to someone who once said that the difference between men and women is basically our biological build up, etc. All other differences were cultural in his mind. This didn’t seem right to me for some reason. I felt like there had to be something more to being male or female.

But really, I can’t see something that pertains to all women and all men.
Sure, only women can get pregnant, but not all women do. Sure only men can become priests, but not all men do. As well, I don’t like to use most other stuff used to “seperate” men and women: not all men like cars, not all women like shopping (shopping actually scares me a bit! :eek:), etc.

Is their any teaching on what it means to be male and female (according to the Church of course.) As well, can you suggest any books/essays/articles that might address this issue? Thanks, discuss away! 👍

God Bless
 
There is a richness of human interaction and interplay possible between and man and a woman who choose each other in mutual love.

The following is simply a prayer/meditation I wrote once re marriage:

Human Relationship

Loving God, each new generation of humans is granted freedom to choose eternal life with You as children of God. You made men and women to complement each other, and to share in Your Creation by propagation of their kind from generation to generation.

You created men and women as reciprocally attractive, finding beauty and treasure in the presumed goodness of the cherished other. In their mutual attraction and vulnerability, men and women are led to dedicate themselves to each other. You bless this intimacy of interaction through Your Sacrament of Matrimony, with its safeguards to soul and body in the security of continuing union.

This Sacrament was instituted to ensure that men and women serve Your will in unselfish ministry to each other’s spiritual, mental, emotional needs—so that each is a sacrament of Your love to the other. The welfare of children born of this sacramental union is assured if lived out in love. Love is the basis of our relation to You and to each other.

**Our God, please bless married couples with love, faith, hope, forgiveness, and perseverance. Please guard them and their family relationships against selfishness and injustice, against cruelty and abuse, against misunderstanding and insensitivity. Shield them against impurity and promiscuity.

Please flood families with healing grace when unemployment, and financial pressures threaten to erode family life. Support them where illness or disability threatens to overwhelm their strength and relationships. Encourage and support them when the actions of each other or their children disrupt family peace and unity.

Have mercy on anyone trapped in marriages that lack tenderness and affection. Comfort those who have bitter and critical spouses. Cherish those whose partners do their duty without love. Have pity on those who are controlled by the other’s will or selfish inclinations. Give support to those whose spouses are faithless, and bring forgiveness and constancy into their union.

Please give grace and assistance to those whose marriage relationships are endangered. Grant them perseverance in mutual compassion and communication. Help them to deal wisely with their problems and to allow sufficient relaxation and humour to restore their ability to cope with pressure and anxiety. Please restore marital relationship with love that overcomes all.

Our God please be merciful towards the needs and anxieties of husbands, wives and children in married and family life. Give restoration and courage to afflicted and aggrieved partners and children, and patiently heal them and their relationships through the Spirit. Let love mould them in faith, wisdom and maturity.

In their suffering and in their joys let them grow stronger by trusting in Your grace. In daily struggle and mutual service, let them become more Christlike. Support them through easy times and difficult, with the joy, and peace of true Christian living, so that they witness Your gospel to Church and society.

Please forgive all sins against matrimony. Halt the erosion of respect owed to this Sacrament through various forms of non-Sacramental union.
**
 
You many like to invite your friend to access a copy of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” by John Gray. Books such as this do give some further insight into the differences between male and female

newhorizons.org/neuro/diamond_male_female.htm
narth.com/docs/york.html

These are just a couple of sites, but you can find any number of them if you look them up on the internet. Happy researching! 🙂
 
Hi,

The difference in man and woman is that of masculinity and femininity. The biological difference is also important. Also keep in mind that though one cannot generalize characteristics to man and a woman it does not mean there aren’t any. Its harder to generalize only due to our fallen nature. Contrary to contemporary belief, man and woman are not equal either. One is not greater than the other but they are certainly different.

For a further discussion on these matters, the book I would recommend on the subject is

Love and Responsibility by Wojtyla (A book JP II wrote before he became pope)

Hope you will find it useful as I did. 🙂

God Bless 🙂
 
Contrary to contemporary belief, man and woman are not equal either. One is not greater than the other but they are certainly different.
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Thanks you everyone. I also wanted to say that I think you mean we are equal but different, a term commonly used in the Church.

God Bless 🙂
 
Flame4 said:
Thanks you everyone. I also wanted to say that I think you mean we are equal but different, a term commonly used in the Church.

God Bless 🙂
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Yes, I think that’s what I wanted to say. In essence that they are both NOT the same in nature but are of equal worth in their respective way.

God Bless 🙂
 
Sorry to derail the thread or to be difficult, but why did God create hermaphrodites or intersex people? I should probably just google or search the forums…
 
ddarko said:
Yes, I think that’s what I wanted to say. In essence that they are both NOT the same in nature but are of equal worth in their respective way.

God Bless 🙂
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Translate this to non religious speak, and you will see you can not.
 
dostoyevskyfan said:
Sorry to derail the thread or to be difficult, but why did God create hermaphrodites or intersex people? I should probably just google or search the forums…
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There is no such thing as an hermaphodite sexuality or intersexuality. There is only one objective sexuality, and that is hetrosexuality. Everything else is a disorder.
 
dostoyevskyfan said:
Sorry to derail the thread or to be difficult, but why did God create hermaphrodites or intersex people? I should probably just google or search the forums…
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I think that this has only occurred because of the fall. Our fallen nature has created, abnormalities, not God. But God, can still draw straight with crooked lines, and so people with these abnormalities, are gifts to us humans in general.

I hope that helps, I am not very good at explaining myself online.:o
 
StrawberryJam said:
Translate this to non religious speak, and you will see you can not.
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I don’t think so. Even biologically speaking the two sexes are different. But philosophically speaking, they are of both of equal value. Though differences can be observed (realm of science/Biology) the worth is a topic of philosophy. So that wasn’t religious speak. Religion also happens to back this view.

Why do you disagree? Do you think one is better than the other? Or do you think they are both the same? Either stance seems to be incorrect and I am not talking religion here.

So not sure what you are getting at my friend.

God Bless 🙂
 
The explanations I’ve seen for “why male and female” generally go something like this.
  1. Our purpose, our goal as God intended for us is to share in an intimate way the love of the Holy Trinity in Heaven, in the afterlife.
  2. The Trinity is often explained as follows: The “Father” eternally begets via love the “Son”, who eternally reflects that love back to the Father. And the love that flows between them is then itself a new person, the “Holy Spirit”.
So there is an “initiator” (the Father), and the “receiver” (the Son) and the love itself (the Holy Spirit).
  1. Although God does not have gender (as in male/female), we are created in the image and likeness of God. In this physical/material world, we have been given gender so that we can in some way mimic / learn / copy the love that flows in the Trinity, to be better prepared for it when we get there. And to give glory to God by imitating his nature along the way.
  2. In general, men as the initiator look for “someone to love”, whereas women as the responder look for “someone to love them.” [Of course, there are elements going both ways in both men and women.]
  3. Men and women seek to share the love of the Trinity, even to the extent of creating a new person. First, in marriage, there’s the “trinity” of God, Man, and Woman. And then later there is a trinity of man, woman, and child.
I’m not an expert at this, but the above explanation is how I explain it to myself. But as everyone knows, the Trinity is a mystery!

Theology of the Body goes into this subject in great detail. As does Theology of the Body for Beginners - by C. West.
 
The world seems to be divided into two groups, those who think that things can be divided into two groups and those who don’t.
 
ricmat said:
The explanations I’ve seen for “why male and female” generally go something like this.
  1. Our purpose, our goal as God intended for us is to share in an intimate way the love of the Holy Trinity in Heaven, in the afterlife.
  2. The Trinity is often explained as follows: The “Father” eternally begets via love the “Son”, who eternally reflects that love back to the Father. And the love that flows between them is then itself a new person, the “Holy Spirit”.
So there is an “initiator” (the Father), and the “receiver” (the Son) and the love itself (the Holy Spirit).
  1. Although God does not have gender (as in male/female), we are created in the image and likeness of God. In this physical/material world, we have been given gender so that we can in some way mimic / learn / copy the love that flows in the Trinity, to be better prepared for it when we get there. And to give glory to God by imitating his nature along the way.
  2. In general, men as the initiator look for “someone to love”, whereas women as the responder look for “someone to love them.” [Of course, there are elements going both ways in both men and women.]
  3. Men and women seek to share the love of the Trinity, even to the extent of creating a new person. First, in marriage, there’s the “trinity” of God, Man, and Woman. And then later there is a trinity of man, woman, and child.
I’m not an expert at this, but the above explanation is how I explain it to myself. But as everyone knows, the Trinity is a mystery!

Theology of the Body goes into this subject in great detail. As does Theology of the Body for Beginners - by C. West.
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I like this answer very much! Thank you:)
 
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