"God and Religion were invented by men to enslave women". Your reactions?

Question

Taslima Nasreen, the exiled Bangladeshi woman writer, under death threats by Islamist clerics, said this in a recent interview given to a Bombay [Mumbai] newspaper.
I think it's a relevant point cutting across all religions.

Answer 1

I dont think thats why they were invented, perhaps as a way to control people as a whole but not just women

However a consequence of these religions is that women are "enslaved".

Answer 2

As an atheist, if I say something like "God is imaginary", I believe I am simply telling the truth, not actually trying to offend anyone. Let's move this statement to more neutral ground - Do Christians ever say things like "Zeus is imaginary" or "Ishtar is imaginary"? Well if they did, I would agree with them! I believe all those gods are imaginary too. As Richard Dawkins once said, everyone is an atheist when it comes to almost all gods - atheists just go one further. The arguments for believing in imaginary beings could be used to get people to believe ANYTHING, and is not just restricted to God-belief(s). UFOs, Big foot, etc could be supported with the same basic formula. The arguments almost always involve question begging, special pleading, bait-and-switch, smoke and mirrors or moving the goal posts or trying to keep their beliefs sheltered in a theological "safe zone", where reason cannot penetrate. Con-artists routinely use similar arguments to hood-wink people out of their money.

Answer 3

I agree that it's a relevant point with most religions........if Religion is Man made (which I'm not saying whether it is or isn't) why are women so repressed....and limited in there choices unlike the men....would God strive for segregation?All people are equal in the Eyes of the lord why can't the women be put in positions of equal power in the church.....? This is a good question, thought provoking.....

What attributes don't women poses to be in equal positions of power and influence within the Church?Why were women denied this equality?

Answer 4

Firstly, we are assuming that religion was invented to enslave anyone at all - that is an assumption in itself.

However, if that was the case, that God and Religion were invented to enslave a group of people; the group of people it would have been aimed at was the masses in general.

Tyrants and dictators and historical kings didn't just want to rule over a gender, they wanted their group of people (or just them themselves) to rule over everyone else. To have the entire country/world's wealth all to themselves.

Taslima Nasreen I suspect cannot see past the oppresion of women that she is under, the fact that if religion was invented to enslave people, the target audience would be wider than that.

I personally think religion, if it was invented for a purpose, was more to do with self-preservation. The 10 commandments, and indeed the fundamental rules of most religions, all deal with the same kinds of things: don't kill, don't steal, don't steal your neighbour's wife etc.

All traits you would like to have in a soceity that you might want to live in. I think it's more likely that God was used to scare people into behaving before laws and police forces were created.

Answer 5

Sounds like she's had a few bad experiences with men - a husband maybe that was a jerk. I know lots of pakistanis and indians that treat their wives poorly because they are following cultural customs instead of their islamic religion. As for the hindu religion, I can't answer that but so far from what I've studied of it, it gives a lot of power to the man and not much to the women.

Answer 6

Religious belief evolved from man's need to explain the natural forces around him. Women were originally the leaders and center of prehistoric religious practice because they were the vessels of life. Men took over religious practices when they saw it as a way to unify and control the population of early cities.

Answer 7

This is a hysterical not a logical statement. Many of the earliest societies were matriarchies that were ruled by women and had goddesses as the supreme deities. This situation enslaved men to woman. Patriarchies eventually emerged, and there was war between matriarchies and patriarchies. The latter won all over the world. Some Greek myths show this conflict well, as Robert Graves and Joseph Campbell noted.

Answer 8

Of course that much is true, but I would expand the concept to include political and geographical "enemies." If you read the OT the fact becomes quite clear that religion was designed to organize and homogenize an army, in order to seize land, property, slaves and others... and to murder others righteously, rape their daughters, and so on. Religion is a testosterone thing, essentially about murder, oppression and stealing.

Answer 9

The Bible deals with that question in its every earliest chapters. Following the fall of Adam and Eve, God declares that because of it "the woman's desire will be for man, and he will rule over her". God is NOT telling men they are to rule over women, but rather he is predicting what will happen in human history. And it does not take much looking into history to see that he was correct.

Realize that the Bible is a progressive revelation of God. That is God starts where things are in culture and society, and moves step by step to where he needs them to be.

At the time when the Old Testament story begin (the time of Abraham) women were treated as property, with no rights and no ability to inherit, no voice in marriage, etc. As the Old Testament proceeds, the laws would begin to give woman property right (they could inherit from their fathers), a guarantee of food, clothing, shelter, and sex (thus preventing the "harem" practice of sleeping with a woman once and then locking her away) or they could divorce their husband. They could sue if damaged by physical violence, etc. These were rights no extended to women in any other culture.

But the New Testament, the church was teaching that "in Christ there is no male or female", and that men and women "are joint heirs together of the grace of God". It had taken thousands of year to reach the point where Christianity was teaching the equality of the sexes.

I will admit that the Christian has not always lived up to its ideals in the area of women's rights. What area has it always lived up to its ideals? (None). But that does not mean that it was "invented to enslave women". Rather, if you follow the development within scripture, you will see that Christianity was invented to release women from the position of bondage were the original sin placed them.

(I can not speak for other religions)

Answer 10

i dont know that woman. she might be speaking from experience.

but i have observed that a religion made up by man might have superiority of men along side of oppression of women as a part of its doctrine.

but a truly God sent religion that men adhere to provides freedom and respect of women as well as others. but even with that, some men still count themselves superior to women and find ways to opress them. but in that case, its not the fault of that God sent religion but the man who interprets it.
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