Never done that, Dave? ;-) Poor lad! You missed a vital part of every growing boy's childhood experiences. Fortunately, we do outgrow them after awhile...or I hope we do. This is how it works: The dog is attempting to enjoy some "down time" on the rug or the front porch. The boy creeps up with a straw and starts gently tickling the dog's foot or his back or his ear. The poor beast gets more and more restless, his skin twitches, his little eye bumps shift around nervously under his closed eyelids, he suspect that there is a fly or some other such pest walking around on him. Presently the dog can't stand it any longer and makes a bunch of sudden snaps at the non-existent "fly", much to the boy's delight. The dog looks around in a weary way, groans or sighs, and attempts to return to dreamland. The boy starts stealthily tickling the dog again...and the whole process repeats itself.

Did I do this in my youth? Yes. And how that poor dog suffered! I have since repented of indulging in that evil habit, and I no longer torture the dog with a straw.

pete - I'm sure we'd find a great deal of common ground. Regarding God being spoken of as "he"...I think that was inevitable in the society that produced the books of the Old and New Testaments. It was a very patriarchal society. Men held all the important positions, they were the ones who ran the religion and the government, and they had the authority. Women were almost treated like property rather than like equal citizens (although some husbands, I'm sure, treated their wives with great love and respect...while some others did not). Anyway, it's almost inconceivable in the society of that time that the males who wrote all the books would have referred to the One God of Moses and Abraham as anything but "He". It wouldn't even have occurred to them to do otherwise.

Therefore I consider it merely indicative of the culture at the time that they did so...not of any innate characteristic of God. I think that a male and female humanity would have to come from a male and female source...that is, a source that either combined both genders...or superceded them in some sense.