Goddess

Sculptor and researcher Merlin Stone's book 'When God was a Woman' alerted me to the fact that once upon a time, societies were largely matrilineal and the deities worshipped were commonly female. This was way before the first profit of Yahweh, Abraham, turned up at around 1500 BC. This is very different to what is taught in Christian circles. The Bible tends to be regarded as a history of the world and is believed to be 'inspired' by God. Since the world existed for at least 10s of thousands of years before Abraham (some say millions), clearly it's not a history of the world, rather a history of  the Hebrew religion. Somehow the religion of Yahweh displaced the ancient Goddess religions practised by most of the ancient world. The key question is how and why, which I will discuss next post.

Where did it all begin?

Well, first, I am female. Secondly, I was brought up in a fairly conservative Christian tradition, which by nature is patriarchal. My whole upbringing was based on the understanding that being female made me somewhat 'less than'. Not just because of the religious association (although there is no doubt this reinforced it) but because that is the way our western culture works. It is patriarchal. This got me thinking...WHY? Why is the foundation stone of society one that favours males over females? Note that my question is not whether this is actually the case. That is not up for discussion...just ask the half of the population that tick 'F' on the forms they fill in. I'm not just talking about the gender pay gap or even domestic violence, although both these issues are BIG and need to be talked about. The fact is that despite some improvements, our society is based on a belief system that is patriarchal.

In certain circles, asking WHY questions can get you into trouble, or at least get you told you 'think too much'...what the? Despite that, I am embarking on a journey to find out WHY and I expect that I will come across some information that will ruffle feathers...open a can of worms. As Oprah says (often!)...'when we know better, we can do better'. My research question is hopefully going to contribute to the world by helping us to do better on the issue of gender equality.