What about Alanis Moresette?

Outside of Western religions there are plenty of other cool non-male deities. There’s lots of pagan goddesses.

The only “feminine” or female deity that is maybe as well known as “God” would be like nature as it is often referred to as “mother” nature and in she/her. Though I’m not sure pantheists or other religions would refer to her strictly as a goddess.

Western religions talk about a male god because western societies are patriarchal; they need it to support a male-dominated societal structure.

It’s the patriarchal nature of Christianity, They can’t have the idea that women are teachers, leaders, that women have roles that are not subservient.

Wicca/paganism/Earth-based traditions tend to be matriarchal and use names like Earth Mother, Ancient Mother, Gaia, etc to describe the most powerful deity.

The major Abrahamic religions have the same root and have had a heavy influence on most of the world. This is largely due to the Roman empire and it’s successors adopting and spreading Christianity in Europe and the Muslim caliphates spreading Islam through the Middle East and Africa.

Further east, Hinduism is the largest polytheistic religion and features a number of prominent goddesses. Though Hinduism has a lot of variety and the exact deities and their genders change depending on the adherents.

Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism don’t really focus on any deities.

Those are the most widespread religions, many others were eradicated or sidelined by European imperialism. Out of those left, many are animist religions, believing in spirits that can be a variety of genders.

Some classical polytheistic religions are still practiced today. They usually have some major goddesses in the mix.

If you go back to ancient Mesopotamia, Inanna/Ishtar is the head of her pantheon.

This is a question that’s great at getting theological arguments going. So to start with, we’re going to be ignoring religions and cultures not dominated by abrahamic religions because Hinduism split from mesopotamian religions in a very different way than Judaism and religions not associated with or influenced by the the mesopotamian civilization start are wildly different and I don’t know shit about them.

So, archeologically, evidence points to the Abrahamic God forming out of two or so male gods from mesopotamia and what began as a group devoting to that god eventually developed into a monotheistic religion. It looks like this may have been a storm god in competition with Baal, but as his religion developed he became androgynous but maintained he/him pronouns.

Theologically: hoo fucking boy that’s a fight right there. Neopagans and Mormons are in agreement that it’s because he’s a manifestation of the divine masculine and that there exists a divine feminine counterpart. Catholics (and to my knowledge jews though I’ve met some who agree with the neopagans and mormons) say that it’s tradition to address him in the masculine but he’s genderless. Some protestants will argue that he’s male and that men were created in his image and women less so. Other protestants agree with the Catholics. Others will say that the holy spirit is the divine feminine. And I’m sure many other interpretations exist.

Because He presents Himself that way. That’s the way He wants to be seen.

I had a dream one time, where I was watching myself through God’s eyes. I was surprised that He cared about me, and thought He must be millions of years old. And the thought came to me, I wonder what He looks like? And in the same way I can imagine what I look like even without a mirror, He allowed me to ‘see / imagine’ what he looks like. He was fit, Maybe the tiniest bit bulky, but not so lean that His muscles would be popping out. Dark hair, full beard, trimmed neatly. And if I had to guess an age I’d say in his mid 40s or 50s. Basically in His prime. Forever.

The other interesting thing that came to me, that made sense in the dream. Is that He wasn’t old. He would never age. Because aging came from negative emotions like anger, bitterness, and so on. And He had none of that in Him. He had a zest for life, and He enjoyed existing.

I’ve had other dreams/ experiences as well.