The following facts are not in which your husband, your fundamentalist pastor, or your literalist Church rejoice. In fact, they may ask her to go quietly if she is going to believe this instead of the inspired, infallible, and historically accurate “word of God.”
“The primordial blueprint for male and female fetuses in mammals is initially female.
Contrary to some creation myths, in mammals masculinity arises from femininity, and not the other way around.
Masculinization results from the organizational effects of fetal testosterone (and its derivatives), which in humans occurs during the second trimester of pregnancy.
Being masculinized means that certain areas of the brain grow larger, while others remain smaller.
These differences explain to some extent behaviors and sexual preferences even in humans.”
Dr Alexander Thiele University of Newcastle upon Tyne Lecture 7: Social emotions – ‘the sex brain’
It actually seems like FEMALE is the default position as humans develop in the womb. Masculinity comes later with the right flush of hormones applied at just the right time and in just the right amounts. The implications for literalists are staggering and for women liberating!
In some cultures, young men are taught to pray: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has not made me a woman.” Muhammad is said to have declared, “When Eve was created, Satan rejoiced.” Much of the sole purpose of the elk creation mythology is to deposit any notions of “goddess” worship, which was an outright fascination that women had the power to give birth and produce life, etc., and replace it with a male patriarchy. The story of Genesis isn’t so much about how life came to be or that we all came from two humans, called Adam and Eve, as it is to send the message that women, who are to blame for everything, must painfully have babies from time to time. . say “yes sir” to her husbands. Since the totally mythological account of the fall of man due to the disobedience of women, much misery and ridiculously false roles have been demanded of them by men and in particular by the Christian church.
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I do not allow a woman to teach, nor usurp authority over man, but to be silent. BECAUSE (reason is) Adam was first formed and then Eve and Adam were not was deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression.” I Tim. 2:11-14
So, according to Paul, the literal truth of Eve’s sin produces the literal idea that women are more deceived than men and prone to sin, and therefore should be silent in church. Or as Saint John Chrysostom, a fifth-century church father, noted: “The woman once taught and ruined everything. For this reason… let her not teach.” It seems that misconceptions of how things actually came about have very big consequences for a long time!
Paul goes on to say…”The head of every man is Christ, and the head of every woman is man; and the head of Christ is God…for he is in the image and glory of God, BUT (as in , do not have the same idea about women) the woman is the glory of the man. Because the man is NOT of the woman, but the woman IS OF the man “. I COR. 11:3,7,9.
In a nutshell, Paul said that men are above women, only Christ is above men, and only God is above Christ. Then it is God > Christ > Man > Woman > pets and small animals. It is notable that this is where Paul clarifies, based on the mythology of the creation of woman from man, that men do not come from women at all and that women owe their physical existence to men as well. I assume that Paul and Dr. Alexander Thiele never met to discuss how males are formed in the womb. Like it or not guys, we literally came from our mother and woman’s default fetal template in the time after we got our hormones in the womb. So men actually come twice from women. Doh… someone tell the Church!
Saint Clement, father of the Roman Church, denied women the right to practice even as men. He felt rather that he was more in accordance with the Scriptures that they limited themselves to spinning, weaving, and cooking. Of course, he hardly dared to add “and I… I know… sex, unless it was out of necessity to bring children into the fold.”
Saint Augustine, not the most balanced Church Father of all, proclaimed that only man was made in the image of God and not woman. But that’s what Paul said too. He went on to point out that men were quite complete without a woman, but women could only be complete with a man. Only man was self-sufficient and complete alone. Once again, time has shown how untrue all of this is, but many churches and pastors still use the concept to keep women in “their place” and fulfill their “role.”
Other theologians and Fathers of the Church continued to point out that men were the spiritual aspect of God, while women were simply a symbol of the flesh, and therefore she is the tempter and debilitator of men who do not see what they are. the Church points out.
In the 16th century, Clifford Alderman notes in his book A Caldron of Witches, that an early Church report noted that “The woman is more carnal than the man: there was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed with a BENT RIB. It’s imperfect and always deceives. Now there’s some good scientific reasoning for you! Of course, no one notices that if women cheat by being made of a crooked rib, what is a man who is made of red earth? Maybe that’s why men have such dirty minds… 🙂
Modern Christianity is still designed and used to kill the spirit of women. He is still here to maintain the patriarchy and defeat the matriarchy of days gone by. Women were mystics in those cultures as opposed to utilitarians in patriarchal or male-led society and religion. I think she would rather have lived in a society where women are held up for their spirituality and creative abilities. As it is, we live in the age, not of Aquarius but of Testosterone, where men rule badly, kill often, and take spoils from those who cannot oppose them. I like the “can’t we all just get along?” of Rodney King much more than those who bragging about “Bring em on”. But unfortunately, that’s not the case in our real world right now.
You have to love this observation from the great philosopher Rousseau.
“As a woman’s conduct is subservient to public opinion, her faith in matters of religion must, for that reason, be subject to authority. Every daughter must be of the same religion as her mother, and every wife must be the same religion as her husband, because even if such a religion is false, that docility that induces mother and daughter to submit to the order of nature, removes, in the eyes of God, the criminality of their error… they are not in ability to judge for themselves, they should abide by the decision of their parents and husbands with as much confidence as that of the Church.” Or as Paul would say, “if a woman has any doubt, let her ask her husband…”
So when does the church grow and face the facts of science, and not base foolish and demeaning claims about women on mythology and error? When does a church finally admit to teaching errors that hurt people? Never as far as I can see. Remember, it took 350 years for the Church to apologize for nearly burning Galileo at the stake for informing them that the earth was not the center of the solar system with the sun revolving around it or around the Church for that matter. However, that is the right amount of time for churches to come to their senses and stop demanding things of people based on fallacies. At what point does ignorance stop oppression and pain?
Only a few Christian women will have the confidence to step out of the box of fundamentalist control of the Church. They will suffer at the hands of ministers who quote Paul, who was frankly misinformed about how things really are in biology, endocrinology, and genetics. Literal control over a woman through the use of allegorical or simply wrong “facts” is wrong. It hurts the spirit and demands women in a world where we better soon wake up to the fact that we are all one and the same.
Sorry guys… without a woman, you wouldn’t exist, and without a healthy dose of hormones at the moment right after your conception, the default feminine position you started in would either keep you there or perhaps act in ways that the The Bible it also continues to condemn you, sometimes with death.
Whether your pastor, church, tribe or friends like it, good science, truly so called, trumps sincere but ignorant Apostles, Priests, Popes and Kings. Dr. Thiele is right.
“Contrary to some creation myths, in mammals, masculinity arises from femininity, not the other way around.”
How cool is that!