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There are few important females in modern religion
Older religions had many female gods. Egyptians, Greeks and Romans had both men
and women gods. The men of Norway were warlike, so their religion
centred on male warriors. But there were goddesses, including horse
riders who took dead warriors to heaven.
In Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, all the significant figures are male.
God is certainly a man, and so are all the prophets, and most of the angels.
Mary the mother of Jesus is the only important woman in the Bible and the Qur’an.
Mary is the perfect mother, her patience is perfect and she never speaks
Mary the mother of Jesus has no needs of her own.
Another important woman for Jesus was Mary Magdalene.
Although she was important to Jesus, she became a minor person in Christianity.
In Christianity she is either a reformed *** or a penitent.
She also wrote or dictated a gospel, but it was of one of the 16 gospels that was excluded
from the New Testament.
Why does monotheism exclude women from divine roles?
We need to understand the politics of land ownership and inheritance.
In societies that lived by hunting and gathering, the two sexes had similar power.
There was always a division of labour. Men did most of the hunting, and women the
gathering. Women at home had the advantage that children
were less likely to be orphans in the dangerous business of hunting large animals.
In early crop-farming agriculture, women spent much of their time pounding grain.
Political leadership in advanced agriculture then tended to become the monopoly of male
elders. This system is called patriarchy.
A patriarch is a senior cleric in the Orthodox church, but it really means a male elder.
The relationships of heaven are essentially those of the patriarchal family in advanced
agriculture. The farm is essential for life, and needs
to be inherited. In nearly every agricultural society, property
is inherited by the eldest son. Proof of paternity is essential for inheritance,
so the virtue of wives needs to be demonstrated. There are no female gods because women were
not important in agricultural societies.