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Sanjay Sharma

Ex Director, Maastricht University India Institute, Maastricht University

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Why all religion founders are male and no female?

Does it tell something about different approaches to Supreme Power by male and female?

Topics: Belief System God Prosperity faith gender peace religion
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    Abhiram Lohit 10+

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    Jul 8 2011: I think men have the need to believe in an intrusive power "from outside" controlling human affairs. Women tend to feel more connected to what's here and around us - the Earth, water, flora, fauna, etc.

    All the so-called primitive pagan "religions" are centered around Earth-worship or tree-worship, or the worship of the Mother Goddess. In such religions, the female is more powerful. These connections are realized through the similarity of the human and natural reproductive processes.

  • Gio Rana

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    Jul 7 2011: To be a founder of a religious group is nothing to be proud of. Women are smarter than that. Women are too busy creating and nurturing life. Men want to create life but can't, so men waste time creating useless institutions to prove their superiority . Women don't have to prove anything
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    Salim Solaiman 50+

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    May 22 2011: As the maternal society was robbed of by males with the advent of family, all kind of leadership went to the hand of males thats why .
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    Connor Dickie

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    May 20 2011: Mary Baker Edy started Christian Science in Boston. Not a full deletion, but at least a denomination/sect.
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      Frank Wynerth Summers III

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      May 20 2011: I was going to wrie the same thing. She is the best example. If you think of the huge religions like Christianity, Buddhism or Hinduism as somehow more than a religion then there are women who founded Catholic religious orders combined with lay movements that have many qualities of a religion (Americans include Dorothy Day along with male Peter Maurin who founded Catholic Worker and two others who were nuns founded other things) Hinduism has its living goddesses and yogis and no particular human founder and so the picture is less clear than implied. However , where there is a clear human founder of a major religion anywhere he is a man always...so far as we know.
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    Mark Meyer 10+

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    May 20 2011: Well there's Helena Blavatsky of Theosophy; Ann Lee, the Shakers; Ellen Gould White, the Seventh-day Adventists. Not a lot, I know, but it's more than none.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Lee
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_G._White
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      Frank Wynerth Summers III

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      May 22 2011: I chose to focus on the noreformed aspects of Christianity which are ignored in much of the feminist history of religion. But to be fair both SAD and (less so) the Shakers fall within the caveat of being Christian and they have to be seen that way. However, I think the point remains valid Jesus founded a new branch of Judaism, Gautama Buddha a branch of Hinduism and the religions all begin within traditions. Theosophy while a revival in theory is one of the most original creations in fact, although I think not in a good way -- that is a different question. The whole subject does not lend itself well to this kind of simple question. But I think your point is right. Christian Science I think falss between the Shakers and Theosophy in terms oforiginality.
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      Jáfia Câmara 50+

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      TED Translator
      May 22 2011: Ah, Ellen G. White... who would have imagined that a little boy throwing a rock at her head would lead to the creation of a religion. I had to hear a lot about her since I attended an Adventist junior high school.
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    Meher Like Spring Rabbit 10+

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    May 19 2011: maybe men are just more driven to believe in irrational superstitions? I wonder if boys hold on to concepts like Santa Clause longer than girls. Could have something to do with a difference in maturation rates between the genders.
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    Debra Smith 200+

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    May 19 2011: Women have always had a very hands on and real love for humanity that was so busy and so much more selfless that there was little time for accolites or writing our thoughts down.
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    Meher Like Spring Rabbit 10+

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    May 19 2011: There have been some matriarchal religions such as in the ancient Minoan culture. And many many many occult and mystery traditions have been matriarchal. And while the common view of polytheistic religions is to call them patriarchal, i'm not sure if that should be a strict stance as many regions claimed to be patronized by particular deities such as Athena in Athens.
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    Jáfia Câmara 50+

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    TED Translator
    May 19 2011: I blame St. Paul.
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    Amily shaw 10+

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    TED Translator
    May 19 2011: patriarchy society and gender role?
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    Hassan Syed

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    May 19 2011: We live in a male dominated society. Women equal rights is fairly recent change in human social evolution. In another 1000 or 2000 year we may have examples of women religion founders.
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      Salim Solaiman 50+

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      May 22 2011: But at the begining it was a maternal society not paternal......
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