The Misogyny of Religion

The Superstition

Revelation 14:1- And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 2. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

The Logic

It never ceases to amaze me that so many fundamentalists think that several groups of people are going to hell yet they never fail to assume that they are among the very limited group of men going to heaven. It clearly states in their mythology that of the 7 billion people currently inhabiting the Earth, only 144,000 virgin males are going to heaven where they will sing all the time and follow a lamb around (sounds like fun?... not to me but whatever floats your boat). And any man who has ever touched a woman is not eligible for "eternal bliss". The 144,000 dudes entering the "kingdom" are all virgins. I suspect the guys who wrote the "fabulous work of fiction" were rather homely boys who never got a date in high school.

I also encounter female fundies frequently who go on and on about gender roles and how they are so devoted to god/Jesus. But not a single one of them seems to acknowledge that they don't have a "hope in hell" (pardon the expression) of entering the pearly gates. First and foremost, they are of the wrong gender (according to the pagan book of misogynistic fables commonly referred to as “the bible”). It is so very clear in "Revelation" that heaven is an exclusive male club. And we hear in the letters of Paul (who I am convinced was, himself, a closeted homosexual) so often that he really did not care for women at all. They were to be barely seen and not heard at all (1 Corinthians 14:33-35) and be forever obedient to their husbands who were free to abuse their wives and daughters at will. I find myself particularly thrilled (not) that the idea of selling one's "daughters" into slavery (Exodus 21:7-11) is a very acceptable practice in the, what I like to call, book of hatred (the bible). How any woman can actually bring herself to "believe" in this obviously sexist nonsense is beyond me. Several people in her life must have had a great deal of success in brainwashing her into believing these ridiculous “morales”.

There is a great deal of anthropological evidence to suggest that early civilizations were matriarchal. Women were revered in primitive cultures as they were "the givers of life". Women carried and bore children and men felt quite useless "back in the day". Unfortunately, human males are larger and physically stronger than females. This is likely because males needed to be the hunters/providers of food and lodging while females cared for the young and so evolution (natural selection to be specific) took care of the larger, stronger and faster physical aspects of male humans. As time went on, it is quite likely that men became jealous of the important roles of women and so developed "religions" where males were superior and females were to be owned (property) and obedient. This is how males elevated their status in societies. Because these ancient societies were superstitious and knew nothing of physics, chemistry and biology, they were quick to believe that a "god" had communicated with a particularly charismatic male member of the tribe. Religions were born and as different tribes wanted superior status to other tribes, new religions were born which were “the only true religion and only true god”. What a load of crap.

It is very likely there is no god – no prime mover, no force of the heavens and earth, no divine daddy in the sky. It is phenomenally unlikely that there is a deity who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. In fact, I can say with confidence that such a being does not exist. I could be wrong, but I truly doubt it. I believe our existence is a natural one. We are here simply because of physical, chemical and biological events that occurred over billions of years. I believe we evolved to be loving and caring simply as an insurance that our species would continue on our tiny planet in the universe for as long as it is able to. Nothing in nature is perfect – NOTHING. Humans are capable of great altruism and incredible evil. It is the altruism that ensures the survival of our species and this is the reason I think we should be good to each other.

Religious beliefs that promote hatred of large groups of people are detrimental to the progress of humanity and life on Earth. It’s time we all started caring for each other and the environment before superstitious nonsense succeeds in destroying the only planet in this vast universe where we KNOW life exists.

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