Faith Is A Feminist Issue

In the concluding chapter, Freedom to Choose, in my book, Ten Reasons To Lose Faith: And Why You Are Better Off Without It,I point out the following after reproducing an extract from http://www.allaboutgod.com/ which spells out in minute detail the role of both husband and wife in a marriage accordign to Christian dogma:

Note the entire ‘justification’ for men declaring the role of women, and for abrogating to themselves the right to do so with no reference to women’s opinions. It is wholly and solely that they can find excuses for it in a book of highly dubious provenance, which some people assert is the inspired word of an invisible magic man for which there is not an iota of definitive evidence.

The stories in the Bible were written by people with a Late Bronze Age Middle Eastern tribal misogyny who saw women as goods, not people. The cultural norms, prejudices and assumptions in that society are expected to be appropriate for today and half the world’s population are expected to meekly comply, because some men say so – and they have a book they can blame.

Religion puts women under the control of, and at the disposal of, men and there is a good biblical foundation for this, so we are told. It almost goes without saying that these rules were written by the same people who assumed that rape was a perfectly legitimate way to get wives, even as gifts for others, and that women were men’s possessions, to be bought and sold at will.

This is perhaps put more succinctly and brutally by that doyen of early Christian philosophy and moral righteousness, the founder of Western theology, Saint Augustine of Hippo, who said:

Any woman who acts in such a way that she cannot give birth to as many children as she is capable of, makes herself guilty of that many murders.

But of course it is not just women who have been controlled and forced into allotted roles by religion or using the excuse religion provides.

For thousands of years, men have controlled women and defined their rights based on nothing more than a faith imposed on girls when they were too young to resist it and were later too terrified to question it. Half the world people have been subordinate to the other half and treated as lesser people because a holy book written by men said they should be.

This is just another example of the social harm that religion has done and why we would be better off without it.

Ten Reasons to Loose faith is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK or your local Amazon website in both paperback or Kindle versions. Purchasers of the paperback from Amazon can get the Kindle version at a special low price. The paperback is also available direct from the publisher, CreateSpace where discounts are available for bulk orders.

Critical reviews include:

If you are religious, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It systematically addresses all the historic and still-used defenses of religious belief, showing how the so-called logical arguments for religion consist of mere word-games and pitiful logical fallacies; how the so-called "morality" preached by the Bible and Koran is far inferior, indeed barbaric, compared with the morality which has evolved in Western civilization under secularism; and how religion itself has been a tool for some people to control others through fear and false promises, while those being controlled are tricked into feeling virtuous about their chains. The very concept of "faith" -- belief without evidence -- would be obviously absurd, disreputable, and dangerous in any other context. The book also shows that evolution can explain the human propensity for religion, as an accidental side effect of certain other instincts which would have been conducive to survival under primitive conditions.

After demolishing the defenses of religion, the second-to-last chapter, "Freedom from Fear", reminds you of just what is being defended -- the endless, obsessive degradation and abuse of women, of sexuality, of children, of the human need for dignity and self-respect, all of it backed up by quotes from the holy books. Such abuses are not a perversion of religion by fallible humans; they're part of the original design and intent.

Again, if you are religious, you owe it to yourself to read this. Aren't you better off knowing if you're being deceived?

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Rosa does it again! This is an excellent book that looks at faith from a factual scientific angle. The author is a fine writer, and her articles are always a pleasure to read, whether it is on science, religion, or how they engage with the rest if us. If you are a fan, this book is essential reading. If you come new to these writings, you can also sign up to her blog which will be emailed to you if you want. I strongly recommend that.

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