Prehistoric Women May Have Run Family and Society
One of the amusing things about contemporary religions is the way they first separate the abilities of men and women and conclude men must have authority. Certainly, both Christianity and Islam are full of this outdated and self serving way of thinking. It is self serving because men came up with this view, not women. When I bring this up, male commenters sometimes point to women they know and how happy the women are with being assigned a lessor role. I've asked if there was ever a secret vote asking women whether they would prefer equal opportunities. This is followed by silence.
The Christian view that men are more important than women is often claimed to come from the Bible. The Bible claims Jesus had only males in his inner circle. We don't know if that is true or not. Even if it were true it has nothing to do with how women vs men should be regarded today.
Sometimes the view is pitched here that men and women are obviously different, only women can give birth. This means, such observers point out, they are different and should have different assignments in society, especially intellectual assignments like making up theology. Theology should be handled by men--apparently because they cannot give birth they are smarter. All religious generalizations about the appropriate roles of men and women are funny.
Science has always been the enemy of religion and now it is happening again. As archeology uncovers more information about ancient humans it is revealing more about the equal role men and women played in prehistoric societies. Evidence shows it is a myth that men went forth bravely hunting while women stayed in the cave cooking and raising children. Instead, evidence is women hunted and lugged home big animals, maybe carrying children on their backs. How could this be when God told us in the Bible this was not the correct place for women?
Christian pundits often lament the fall in Christian numbers and speculate on what can be done. They could start with the basics, treat men and women as equals.
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