GOD - Chapter 9 (Misogyny)

Pardon my absence. I have been much too busy finding a new dive to live in, as well as counting my blessings, to write any new anti-Christian screeds.

Amidst the madness, I have had a chance to read chapter 9 of GOD : God is misogynistic. I mean, duh. Barker starts off with a quote from Genesis ordering wives to be ruled by their husbands. Greeat. What about femdom marriages? No space for them in this tradition. Matriarchal societies would literally have to restructure themselves to accommodate Christianity (or Islam).

But there are some positive points. Barker writes-

"The God of the Old Testament was not 100% sexist. Here is one example of true gender equality: 

'You shall eat the flesh of your sons & you shall eat the flesh of your daughters'" (Leviticus 26:29)

Charming. 

Among the biblical blather quoted ("Slaughtering without mercy," from the book of Lamentations, etc), Barker also writes about the differential in the financial evaluations of females as merchandise in the Hebrew culture:

"Monetarily, a woman is worth less than a man in the Old Testament, which is especially obvious when the Israelites are buying & selling slaves at God's command."

Hmm. In YHWH's eyes, "A woman is more unclean after giving birth to a daughter than to a son."

In Barker's eyes, these tales - Eve coming from the rib of Adam, women less-worthy as slaves, the women of Israel whoring about & getting burned or stoned, the 'Chosen People' conducting wars to gain wives etc- are simply "religious justification for the denigration of women." Barker also states earlier in that sentence that "The writers of the Bible...are all men." Even if we could determine with any degree of certitude who the writers of the Bible were, would we find all men? Probably, but not necessarily.

Women, & especially mothers, are integral to the upkeep of not only patriarchy, but just gender norms in general. Because of the mother's integral role in the child's life (speaking now just of Euro-culture, of which I am familiar), they have a unique role in transmitting to sons ideas of male superiority, privilege, entitlement, & to their daughters the place of women, 'the wages of love', what is tolerable in male partners, & perhaps most importantly, what is a 'good girl' & what is a 'bad girl.' Mothers are what a patriarchy is made of. It is not often spoken of but women themselves must be implicated in the patriarchal position in Western culture. If all women advocated for an equitable position, or even a crude matriarchal position, we would see a much different world. It is mothers' precious ideas of the 'prince', 'a woman's place', the sexual double standard, & 'what men are useful for' that deserves to be looked at. 

Moving on - "God wants humans to remain ignorant." It is incidental to this subject-at-large (misogyny) that this fact is to be re-stated. But it is integral to the Abrahamic spirit & message. From its very origin story, the Christian/Jewish tradition cites as evil 'knowledge': Its tree & the self-awareness that Adam & Eve gain. Is it not utterly stupefying that it is the tree of 'knowledge' that God warns his people from. Beyond this, it is not so much knowledge proper that YHWH is against, but specifically knowledge of the self that is to be avoided. How interesting this is, for self-knowledge was the essence of other ideologies we as humanity have developed. Gnosticism, Buddhism, Psychoanalysis - they are devoted to this very pursuit, that which YHWH positioned himself against so long ago (allegedly)

Barker says the legend of Eve, "Is the source of women's inequality in the Middle East, the Western World, & every country infected with Biblical belief." Interesting that the author would acknowledge these legends as the justification for pre-existing misogyny traditions & then cite them as the origin. Perhaps it is both. Perhaps it does originate within the particular culture of the Hebrews, & was magnified by the massive circulation of their foundational book. In this way, we can view Biblical patriarchalism as a concurrently-reinforcing essence-message that magnified as the misogynist tradition spread. But the above is more thought than Barker, or other New Atheist authors tend to give to their anti-biblical tracts. On the whole, these arguments are often shallow & opportunistic. Out of all chapters, the critique of the Bible as misogynist is the most curious. While it could well be honest (& from Barker it probably is) the New Atheist tradition is one known for its male-dominant attitudes & sometimes outright misogyny itself.

Barker also brings up Paul ('or someone pretending to be Paul', he pertinently points out), & his infamous injunction against women occupying any position that would subordinate a man. It was this Bible quote that served so useful to Church Fathers in the 200's - 400's, that they repeated ad naseum in their polemics as these men worked to exterminate non-orthodox thought. 

Iraneus

One more note about the Biblical misogyny: Barker points out the "The biological reversal" that is inherent even in the origin story -

"Woman comes out of man instead of the other way around." 

Interesting. This attempted terra-forming of reality to conform to ideology, rather than something which can be perceived to outsiders brings me back to the warped world of life under State Socialism: Pravda, filled with articles meant to obfuscate, pictures crudely scratching away at the faces of those purged & gulaged, mental illnesses that only existed in the Eastern Bloc, false production statistics, five-year plan quotas that could never be fulfilled, heck, everything about North Korea. It is interesting again I come to Communism, which DM Murdock says gained much of its disregard of humanity from its characters' proximity to Biblical traditions, both Christian & Jew. 

The infamous Pravda