Interesting thread! I have often pondered the differences in the male and female approach to the craft. As a rule, they do approach things in a completely different manner. As a man, I tend to have an almost "scientific" approach, for lack of a better word. The only time I do ritualized workings is when I can see how the ritual is going to help my concentration, my will, or my visualization. Also if I'm working with spirits or deities, I will use ritual. Many rituals almost make me feel foolish or I can't see logically how it will help my outcome.
My theory is simple. you have a circle and 4 buckets of sand and 9 buckets of water. So if u want to move the buckets to the circle you can`t move more as there is. example 7 buckets of sand while there are only four.
The thing is with this subject. In statistics on every man there are 9 women. Now while the Y chromosome is weaking and women better survive infancy and also there is the point that they have a spare X chromosome in case of genetic diseases it is logical that on the planet there will be even more women than men.
Then the reason why now there are less men in your religion is that there aren`t many in the first place. Yes I agree your other teories because every one of them is true but you can`t have more buckets of sand than there is :P
True, there are less males on the planet.
Along with your theory is plausible.
Although- how does the actual population of men in the world, effect the percentage of them that are in any specific religion?
I myself have a theory:
It is scientifically proven that men have less capacity for emotion, therefore need of relief and security... meaning, men generally like to be macho.
Now then, backing this theory of mine is another theory: that religion serves for most who belong to religion, a life-line, comfort, assurance of what comes after the mysteries of death...
Death and the concept of no longer existing amongst what one has known their entire life scares people, religion brings comfort of things such as this.
Women, whether we admit or not, many of us including myself- prefer comfort and reassurance. As this is so, many of us don't like being confused or being blind (in the sense of what comes after death).
This brings us to religion, promises made of what our lives should turn out to be if we do and or act in certain ways. This gives us reassurance that we'll get what we want out of life while as men often times don't know what they want or in some cases don't care.
Religion, in a way, is used for nothing but comfort for most people who belong to them, and men somehow knowing this, don't want it or attempt to not care if not succeed.
Not only this, but in the older of times most religion was based originally based on the fear of divine forces, again, men like to "macho"...
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This is a very broad theory not directed at any specific religion.
Wicca and paganism are often portrayed as being feminine religions, and the media especially tend to portray wiccans as teenage girls, which can put guys off.
Also, I find a lot of religions can act as a guide book or instruction book to life, and we all know what men are like with reading insructions.
I find, as a general, women do prefer more guidance to men, probably because they tend to be a lot more insecure. Notably, there are always exceptians, I myself get mstaken for male a lot over the internet. And I know some very feminine men, too. These are just generalisations.
I thought the world was comprised of 51% women and 49% men. I could be mistaken though.
Also, it's very difficult to have a conversation about the differences between men and women without doing some serious stereotyping and generalization, both of which are inaccurate and unpleasant.
I still stand by my opinion from last year, which i amazingly still agree with, that women are going to be drawn to religions which are female-centered, have dieties that they can relate to, and extend leadership and clergy opportunities to them.
Very true. Alot of the more common religeons such as christianity and islm view women as inferior, and it is annoying. It makes more sense for females to worship female dieties as well.
As for the stereotypes and generalisations, yes, they are annoying, and as a said, not everybody fits them, but it's impossible to talk about every person individually in this situation, so they have to be made.
No, that isn't what we're saying, we're just speculating why there are more women in wicca than men. There are a lot of men in wicca, just not as meny as women.
