General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why does every religion on the planet [View all]Tab
(11,093 posts)(and I'm not defending it, just trying to understand it). Men were the traditional strong ones, the ones who could make the most impact in their community. Not that there weren't strong women, but I think it was relatively few and far between, certainly socially, but more importantly just physically. So, mankind (if I can call it that) became a male-centric universe. This stuff doesn't change easily, and it's had hundreds and hundreds (or thousands) of years to get entrenched.
As people evolve, we're finding (I think) that other skills - diplomacy, negotiation, social order - are valued now more than they used to be, mainly because armament and such have evened out the playing field, and strength itself is no longer the deciding factor. I would argue that females are actually better in this department than males. And the religions are changing - there are more female priests, activists in repressive societies and so forth; the shift might not be running as fast as some would like, but at least it's going in the right direction. It took a long time to get here, and it might seem like it's taking a long time to get out, but we also had slavery / female oppression (right to vote) / xenophobia / homophobia for a long time, but the turnaround is, I think relatively quick. I've seen remarkable changes since I grew up in the 60s. There's a long way to go, granted, but I wouldn't lose hope. It's a good question, and we're going to get there.