Skepticism

Skepchick Quickies, June 29

Jen

Jen is a writer and web designer/developer in Columbus, Ohio. She spends too much time on Twitter at @antiheroine.

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11 Comments

  1. For God to Hate Women, is it not a prerequisite that God exists? If the authors are atheists, their position makes no sense at all.
    Would it not be more rational to hypothesize that religion is a tool used by weak, unimaginative people (particularly men, but women have contributed), who cannot think of any way of feeling good about themselves other than by disempowering women?

  2. It’s a long and complicated debate about whether religion causes misogyny (and a host of other problems) or if the misogyny already exists and people use religion as an excuse to justify it. Most likely, it’s a combination of both. However, almost all religious groups are too large to be homogeneous and so there’s much diversity within them. There are Muslim groups that are not misogynistic, which leads me to believe that although religion is one factor in making people misogynist, it’s certainly not guaranteed to do so. I once dated a Muslim man who was against polygyny specifically because of his Mulsim faith and the requirement to love all wives equally, which he believed was impossible for any man to do. All of the major religions have so many holy texts that people can cherry-pick whatever they want to support pretty much any conclusion. That’s why we have so many different types of Protestants. Religion is just a part of a culture, and it can change just as much any other part of culture.

  3. They cherrypick their evidence because they are as fundamentalist about their atheist liberalism as are the religious hardliners and primitivists they condemn. This book serves only to reinforce the prejudices of those who can attribute no good to any religion nor concede that every faith contains multitudes of moderates as well as conservative extremists. Fans of Richard Dawkins will love it.

    They had me until the last line.

  4. @Kaylia_Marie:

    I totally agree. Initially, I was just giddy, because, well, just seeing Richard Dawkins’ name tends to do that to me. But, when I read the rest of the article, I was slightly more than irriated. They should have used Christopher Hitchens instead. Richard is just too nice. Everyone has to like him… but not everyone has to like Hitchens. Although, I’d be willing to sleep with either of them.

    I should sensor myself.

  5. @Kaylia_Marie: Well, I didn’t really have any snappy answers for today. Sorry. My first thought when I read that one, was yeah, men use religion to oppress women (in Mormonism *I* can’t get into heaven unless my husband calls me in… *insert rolleyes*).

    And I agree with tmarie, I’d sleep with Hitchens.

  6. @tiger kitty: Do Mormons really believe that? I’ve never heard that one before, but then I tend to give Mormons a wide berth… I guess you really do learn something new every day, and by “new” I mean “horrible”.

  7. @Skepotter:

    Would it not be more rational to hypothesize that religion is a tool used by weak, unimaginative people (particularly men, but women have contributed), who cannot think of any way of feeling good about themselves other than by disempowering women?

    Yes that’s kind of the point Benson and Stangroom are getting at, the title is metaphoric.

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