About God and misogyny?

Question

There's one thing I don't get. As we all know, the Bible is full of misogyny.

Some people say that the reason for women being discriminated in religion and in today's life is the fact that they were the ones who started the sin so they were basically the origin of the sin. But if God decided to punish women for Eva's actions only after Eva sinned, then why does God (who existed before Eva and Adam even came into the picture) has always been called a He? My point is that the fact that God fulfills the role of a male entity (even if He only does it with His name) goes to show that this discrimination against women has always existed and has no reason. If God would have given equal rights to both sexes and would have been truly fair as the Bible says, then He wouldn't have been called a He, He would have been a combination of both sexes. The appellative leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Now if this gender title would have been applied to God only AFTER Eva had sinned, I would have understood it, but this gender title has ALWAYS been applied to God so that tells me the discrimination against women in the Bible has always existed. And from this point of view, I see no reason for it. If it would have happened after Eva's sin, there would have been a reason, but there are no reasons. And if there are no reasons, then God isn't fair.

It's not only because of her but the Bible says she is the ORIGIN of sin, not necessarily the sin itself.

@ norelief13: I never said God is a male, I said the MALE APPELLATIVE was applied to Him.

@ laboratory.mike: The angry face in my avatar as you call it has nothing to do with the question at all. No, I'm not looking for anything to help me repress my anger. I'm looking for a simple answer like everyone else. If you can really and seriously associate an avatar with a question, then you are extremely childish. Judging by your tone and the way you stereotypes, I'd say you're the one looking for a target of your anger/hate.

@talleymark: If you didn't notice, that's not the only argument. The whole historical and religious backgrounds serve as arguments. But even if that would be the only argument, that appellative alone says a lot! If you cannot see its importance its not my fault.

Answer 1

Whether or not it was a man or woman that made the first sin, isn't God supposed to forgive all sinners? Or have I got it wrong?(I'm not a religious person)

Answer 2

I have a few thoughts on your analysis.
First of all, it assumes that all manifestations of religion in the world started with male deities. Not true. The main figure in Egyptian mythology was female. Many ancient religions posited a female presence first, who gave rise to a male god. I guess it is because even men knew that only women gave birth and they saw creation as giving birth.
I think that our concept that the supreme being is male is because men have been in charge in the culture that we know. However, there is no reason to believe that the supreme being is either male or female, especially since sex is a dualism and the supreme being is a unitary entity.
In the end I believe that some men are misogynist, not any labeled group. Misogyny is an ungrowth of fear, I believe, and a need to be superior.
Oh, by the way, the "Adam and Eva" story was borrowed by the Hebrews from their Babylonian captivity. It is one of the Sumerian stories and eventually became Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism believed that there was one god, but since people had difficulty seeing how good and evil could come or be attributed to one god, that god generated two gods, one representing good and one representing evil. These eventually became the gods that came to be worshipped.
It is interesting that Abram (Abraham) was said in the Bible to have come from the region where these myths were developed and was told by Yahweh to live in Canaan.
I think religion as we know it today owes a lot to women, but much of this information has been suppressed by males for various reasons, some of them not too religious.

Answer 3

The facts in the Bible may be from God - but the words were penned by men in a time and a place where women were ill-educated and little-regarded other than as bearers of babies. Those men had no concept or example (or at least very few) of a woman who had the training and the spare energy to do the kind of philosophical thinking that women routinely do now. Women then, as now, were not as strong physically, and survival depended on phyiscal strength when all else was said and done.

Women have learned, with the advent of more and better education, that by banding together, there is strength; men have learned that women CAN learn, and CAN band together.

If you think the Genesis account gives men some greater privilege than women (I'm not sure that's what you're after), then I would have to say that if you fail to consider the Bible in the context of the era in which is was written, then you may think that God somehow gave greater rights to men. The discrimination DID have a reason (although that doesn't mean there was an excuse for it); the reason being that women ARE physically weaker, and we do not, in general, work together as well as men - at least not on an instinctive level. However, human beings of either gender do not operate solely on instinct, and now that women DO have the educational opportunites that men have always taken for granted, we can, and we are, working together to remove the limitations traditionally placed on women in all areas of society.

Once education steps into the gap, it always closes - it's just a matter of time.

Answer 4

Let me explain this, but before I say anything am not looking for non sense talk and so also not here wanting someone to start flame here.
If you take a very close look about what religions came from you will find that both Jew and Christianity in the same area and Islam almost near them by just a small area (am talking geographical). I believe that all religions came from social behaves that people convert it to something have more value (religion) as Jew’s is the starter of those facts (Jews have 70% Egyptian roots) and at the time Jew’s came women’s was nothing more than half slaves to their men’s , they work with him at the field and there priority is to take care of children needs nothing more nothing less , that’s what was in face of society ,but in fact Egyptian women’s was the hidden hand of everything on the society , they was using there honey words to drive there men’s to the direction they want ,from this point most of mean start this kind of misogyny , and with time when Christianity came in they was just the same people who left Egypt to start new life with the same deep ideas about women’s they tried to give the man more holiness and respect and put all the hate on women’s even says that women’s is the sources of humanity lose the heaven coz of the Eva sin .same for Islam , religions is just a mirror of society thoughts and ideas . As long as all religions came from middle-east the main point and idea will be the same.
- If you asking do there is a god: yes there is but not the same as we think he is.
-do bible, Koran, or whatever holy book is the words or god: in fact not 100 % yes. It some of social ideas and values that people respect (as all the prophets’ are men’s).
Also the fact of that there was Eva and Adam is non-sense.
I hope that I did point what I need to point clearly.

Answer 5

Well, the Hebrew word for "God" in the book of Genesis (at least in the creation story ) is "Elohim", which is actually plural. In Hebrew, the "im" ending could be either masculine plural or refer to both males and females. Some translations even say, "And Elohim (the spirits) said to *them*, 'it is good' ." And this was in the first creation story, before Adam and Eve, back when he was doing the whole, "let there be light" deal. So who are the "them" that God/The Gods were talking to about creation? It does throw a wrench into the whole discussion, doesn't it?

As a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, Adam was destined to "toil" for a living - i.e., the work of farming and caring for animals. Eve was "cursed" by being made to "toil" in childbirth. (or "labor", or "work hard at") The word is the same for both Adam and Eve - "toil" - which makes all those silly ideas about painful childbirth being noble or biblical kind of interesting. Guys invented farm equipment, didn't they? So what's wrong with an epidural? LOL

Answer 6

I think religion has been used as an excuse to justify mistreatment of women. I grew up in a single parent household and surprise my mother was left with the responsibility. She came from a religious background and for my "sake" took me to church. She got little emotional support and a heavy dose of condemnation for being divorced. She struggled to support us on a garment workers meager wages. She never received one child support check. Yet this noble woman got nothing but grief from her fellow Christians. I do not understand why religion is so hostile to women. I am still seeking to know more about God. I would not be surprised at all if God were a woman. God is so patient with humans and organized religion. I now seek God outside of Christianity

I did attend a Disciples of Christ Church early in my twenties. They were much more liberal and progressive. It was common for people of both genders to use the phrase "Mother/Father God"

Sorry I could not give a better response. I am not a theologian or philosopher. But I do wish to thank you for posting a good quality question to this forum. So much that goes on in the women's studies section is petty name calling.
From both feminist and anti-feminist.

Answer 7

The Bible is like a handbook for conformists. And yes, it is misogynist. I am also displeased by how God is always referred to as "He" which confirms Christianity was based on a patriarchy. There are also TONS of contradictions throughout the book, and most of it is a collection of fables and stories. Though, there are some good morals to learn from it (ie. don't steal, lie, kill...)

Though I do believe there is a "God" and not in the Christian mindset. The universe is God. The universe is omnipresent, it has been around since the beginning of time, and it created all of the life surrounding us.

Answer 8

As portrayed in the Bible, God is not fair. It's a really good reason to seek out other religions in my mind. Of course all major religions are misogynous. That was how culture operated back then, and just reflects how the human authors wrote what they (not God) felt was right and would be accepted by others at the time.

Those ancient texts don't really have much to do with God in my book. Of course we have no proof that God exists at all, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Answer 9

First of all, it's EVE, not EVA.

Secondly, God never had anything to do with it.

Women were made the bad guys to keep them under men's control because men wanted sex ad someone to keep house for nothing.

At first, men used brute force. They clubbed and beat their wives into submission. Then, to put a positive spin on things, they wrote "God' into the picture.

Don't forget that women have been essentially the property of men up to about 100 years ago in the West and they still are in many parts of the world, regardless of the religion practiced locally.

And, if you think about it, it is impossible for God to be a he or a she, but is more likely an 'it'. No mammal has the capacity to be omniscient, which implies a mental storage capacity in the penta-pentillions. No mammal has the ability to be everywhere at once, and God is credited with the power of omnipresence. And no mammal has omnipotence, since we all succumb to disease. The powers acsribed to God just don't work with the mammalian model.

It is far more likely that 'making man in Gods image' should be interpreted as 'making Man according to God's design' that he literal reading often given to it.

Answer 10

1 Timothy 2:11-12 (English Standard Version)

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.


11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.

there are variations of this in other Bible translations. i'm no Bible scholar, but this is...something.
Good luck.

Answer 11

I hate to be the one to burst your bubble but there is no God, male or female, that's why nothing makes sense in the bible! It say to beat and kill in the bible but it is against the law, hum? Is that an oxymoron or what! God says it's OK to do things that are reprehensible but the law says these things are crimes, does God want us to break the law? Religion is just one of many kinds of mind control, go get deprogrammed, good luck.