The professor has her own agenda?

Question

One of my college professors was lecturing us on mesopotamian mythology, but brought in other unrelated topics. She strikes me as being a liberal, atheist, and feminist out to prove her point in class, and teach her opinion as though it were fact. Here's more or less what she said two days ago:

"You see that the mesopotamians had female gods that are demoted from being sky gods to being earth gods, stripped of their power. And by the time we get to Judeo-Christian and Islamic tradition, there are no more female deities represented in the religion."

Does anyone else see the flaw in this statement? Does anyone else see what she failed to mention? Christians, Jews, Muslims: what do you think about this?

David R: haha i was thinking exactly the same thing. lol.

A lot of interesting perspectives in these answers people. thanks.

Answer 1

Does she know God doesn't have a gender? God is simply God...

Answer 2

a) She failed to establish that the female figures were, in fact, gods. Clay figurines of exaggerated female figures from that period may have served the same purpose as depictions of exaggerated female figures today. You know where depictions of exaggerated figures are found today, don't you? Don't make me tell you! All right, I will. The pages of Penthouse Magazine. Definitetly not used as figures of worship, those.
b) If they were sky gods, she failed to establish why they were demoted to earth gods, (assuming they were, see (a) above)which presumably happened before the Abrahimic people invaded. So why did the Mespotamians demote their sky gods?
c) If the Mesopotamians demoted their former sky gods to earth gods, did they replace them with other sky gods that weren't female?

d) The Old Testament talks about some of the other gods that the Israelites ran into following The Exodus. These include Asherah, who was a female goddess, with groves and hilltop shrines devoted to her. (Some of the Israelites took up the practice of worshiping her, and were later punished when a prophet of YHWH came around and said that worshiping anyone other than YHWH was wicked... this happened several times.)


I can't think of anything else.

Answer 3

Before, you get offended by what I am going to say, please believe me: I teach at a major U.S. university and I am also a devout believer in Christ. But I want to tell you that all professors teach what is their opinion. That is how it works. All scientific "fact" is simply the most current theory about a situation, even in the field of history. For example, the prevailing theory about the shape of the world before was that the earth was flat, and now the prevailing theory was that it is round. But there is always a possibility that a new hypothesis could come along in the future that better explains the information the person is teaching.

I completely agree with you that there are ways to find out truth that don't involve scientific knowledge. But science and religion are not at odds; instead they are both two ways to try to accomplish a common goal: learning truth.

So in defense of your professor, she is doing nothing out of the ordinary. She's doing exactly what's her job. She is simply taking observations and analyzing them to see if they fit a hypothesis. If they fit the hypothesis, that is what she teaches. You don't have to agree with her to understand why she sees things the way she does. Hopefully that will instead inspire you to become a historian yourself and analyze from a different perspective which better explains the world as you see it.

If you find that you can't handle learning about a theory that you disagree with, you always have the option of dropping the class, and you are free to do so.

I assume the part of her statement that you object to is the implication that Judeo-Christian beliefs evolved from Mesopotamian beliefs.

Answer 4

I surely have a diploma in economics and that i had some somewhat liberal professors. Many have been very open approximately pushing their time table. sometimes, i replaced into marked down on papers if I expressed a differing view. I became very sturdy at telling them what they wanted to hearken to just to get an A. I additionally stay in a school city and function a chum who's a Poli Sci professor. We as quickly as went to a celebration at her residing house and have been the only "non college". It replaced into like an echo chamber all of them have the comparable (very liberal) ideals and LOL, they quite think of they are average.

Answer 5

She failed to see the the Judeo-Christian/Islamic God is not a male or female at all.

Using the word "he" in the English language does not HAVE to be used to represent only a male. It is often (and by definition can be) used to represent something when a sex is not known or not applicable.

Answer 6

much as I hate to give anything to a feminist she's right. the early mesopotamian's WERE polyistic not monolothic. the jews were also poly even after they came to Canaan until king josiah got brain bombed by a yaweh priestess and went on a pat buchanan type purge to unite the jews under a yaweh banner.
especially ancient jews were very patriarchal and conservative. the ten commandments and especially deuteronomy reflect this. however, pay close attention how she phrases her lectures. you might want to record them if you want to make any complaints, but on this one, from a scholarly perspective she's dead on. it's amazing to think of where we would be today of the god we worship as christains had stayed one among a pantheon!

Answer 7

I'm a bit confused.

Why did the mesopotamians decide to demote all their false gods?

Also, why try to put a PHYSICAL attribute (gender) on God's spiritual nature?

I can see the Judeo-Christian link, but fail to see and link to islam.

Answer 8

Of course she has her own agenda.
But so many people do.
Every time I read about Jesus wanting to gather Jerusalem to him as a hen gathers its chicks, I stop and think.
Adam was created in Gods own image. But that was before there was woman (Eve).
So sometimes I wonder about how much a good wife has made me a more complete image if God when I work and love her as God wants me too.
For God is neither male not female, but God is the best of both.

Answer 9

"He" can be all inclusive as it is the male that has both the x and the y chromosome. Females on the other hand have two x chromosomes.

Bring this up to her, it will drive her feminist self crazy. LOL

Answer 10

She's right. All the big players in Christianity/Judaism/Islam are men (unless you count Mary, but she's not a deity).

Religion has just about always been very sexist and mysogynist.

Answer 11

I give up. What did she fail to mention? (PS: Sounds like she's been reading Da Vinci Code too much).