Religion: Archenemy of Social Evolution?

I submit that religion as it exists and is embraced throughout the world, presents the biggest threat to society’s evolution. No society can consider itself progressive if at its core there exists a philosophy whose successful implementation and maintenance depends on weakening its people through the use of fear and damnation.
Most of all world religions ask us to buy into a singular foundational truth; the one that lies beneath the belief in the Savior. We are asked to believe that a Savior, a prophet, a teacher, descended upon this earth at one time long ago and spoke to the ‘men in charge’ about how the world is meant to work. When they emerged from their meeting, the result was announced from the highest mountains across the world and to be implemented immediately. It was the Edict of Sexism: the Superior Man and the Inferior Woman. It is the core belief we all must accept before we can move on to fully embrace the message of and belief in ‘Our’ Savior.
The speech heard ‘round the world sounded something like this for the Christians:

“Hear ye, hear ye. On this day, Men, we have been vindicated. Make way and allow us to introduce our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Jesus Christ steps up to the microphone and thanks the audience for their attendance. Clearing his throat, he delivers his world-wide directive in a speech that would change the world forever and someday get him killed.

“Ahem. I have come down from heaven, sent by my otherworldly father through my virgin mother, to tell you that we have decided the world is best run as follows. So, listen up because this is gonna effect everyone!

From now on we will have a patriarchal system with a central alpha-male. This role shall be filled by me until my death. Upon my death and for the foreseeable future, it will be held by a succession of men representing my best interests until I see fit to come back down on to this earth for a second go around and clean up the messes you have made. Furthermore, herewith I present you a list of laws for living right, which are self-explanatory; however if there should exist any questions, speak to the men I’ve placed in charge and they will explain it to you in more depth. I trust in them and their guidance is wisdom as it is in my best interest.

And now, a critical message for the women in the audience; from this point on women must obey, honor, and subjugate themselves in all ways and always to men. You are evil temptresses. I know because I’ve gotten into trouble a number of times with a woman from around these parts whom you may be familiar with; Mary Magdelene. It is clear to me that they are unclean in life and once they’ve given birth it is only worse. In case you were wondering, this is why they are punished during childbirth with immense pain.

They’ve tried for many years now to hold childbirth and their knowledge of the maternity of their child over our heads.” Pounding his fist on the podium for emphasis, Jesus exclaims, “Well no more! We’ve had enough. As such, my father and I have devised a plan through which we can declare our superiority once and for all. Henceforth, you are now authorized to overpower them physically whenever necessary. This should be enough to keep them in their place and limit their movements, so that we can now have the upper-hand and be in possession of the knowledge of the paternity of our children.

Furthermore, since they are able to be dominated so easily in this way, we further feel that this is evidence of their weakness, of their inferiority in thought, action, and mind, and demonstrateable proof of our superiority over them. As such, they shall exist without rights, other than those bestowed upon them by men; who through this proof of their superiority would be better suited to decide what is best for women anyway.”

After a deeply satisfying sigh of relief, Jesus looks over the faces of the crowd preparing himself to inspire the men to fully embrace his teaching. His arms rise up towards the sky and his eyes seem to settle on the faces of every man as he enthusiastically incites rebellion. “Men, after all they’ve taken from us by holding this maternity and childbirth thing over our heads for so long, it is time for a revolution! Draw on your physical dominance to free yourself from the frustration you’ve felt all these years. Use, abuse, and murder them as you see fit. For this is your will, men. It is also the will of God; my father, your father. And I am his messenger.

People of the world if you shall not obey you will be condemned, at a minimum, to a lifetime of being burned alive in the fires of hell; a place you do not know, should not ever know, but should fear deeply as I have witnessed the terror and evil that can be concocted from below. So unless you want to know what this feels like, I strongly advise you to heed my words, follow my rules to work against the evildoers, and to spread the message of God to the people of the world. For woe unto them who on the days of my second coming are not pure of heart and fully embracing my teachings, they shall feel the wrath of God when He lays His vengeance upon them.”

Collecting himself once again with a deep breath, Jesus shakes his head briefly, smoothes his wrinkled face and allows a relaxed smile to emerge as he reaches out towards the masses for his concluding remarks. “Oh yes! I nearly forgot. In closing, my father and I are always there for you. We love each of you deeply as you were created in our own image and likeness. As such, don’t try to kill yourself to get out of this either, since that would send us the message that you don’t like the way we look and who we are. That would make my dad and me pretty angry and would be a serious sin against us if that happened. Other than that if you follow all the rules, we’re pretty forgiving guys who have your best interests in mind. If you ever want to talk, just simply look upwards towards the sky and begin talking. We’ll be listening and watching you always. That’s all for now. Have a nice life. Peace be with you.”

Ok, so in short, its payback time for men. One could get the impression that this Savior came simply to vindicate men in the battle of the sexes. I have always found it interesting that we are to look up to a Savior who has created each of us in his own image and likeness, yet we are at the same time to assume that this Savior came to the earth to proclaim the superiority of the male sex and the inferiority of females. How is it that this omniscient being could be in possession of such narrow-minded ideals? In all his omnipotence did the Savior fear women too? Or perhaps it is simpler; this all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, wise Savior was simply a frustrated guy who became a misogynist; attracted, yet repulsed by women. Forced to suffer through the conflict of wanting women, but hating them for their power, he trudges on somehow in this unfair world spreading only the message of peace. Oh, ok. Now I get it. I almost feel bad and begin to understand. Huh?
Can’t we say of all human beings that we try to destroy or ignore what we fear? What were men left with when they found that not only do women and men both have adequately functioning brains, but women could also bring children into this world and guarantee the maternity of her child? How many women do you know that ever have to question the maternity of their child? This is not so for men and this is a very powerful position that women share in society and men can never attain it. They have little control over it other than to marry and try to dominate in such a way that they can guarantee to the best of their ability that the seed inside is their seed. Isn’t this whole thing really a matter of trust?
But instead of trying to find a way to trust each other, they chose to invent an unearthly Savior, a Man, a God, who descends upon earth and proclaims righteous male dominance over all and tries to ensure its continuance by preaching the critical message; women must obey, honor, and subjugate themselves in all ways to men, they are evil temptresses, they are unclean in life and once they’ve given birth, they are inferior in thought, action, and mind, weak, and without rights, they can be used and abused at a man’s discretion, for men are in short God’s chosen leaders and in essence gods themselves whom women should look up to. Furthermore, to ensure their position, men are authorized, though divine right, to use their physical strength to overpower women to make it clear.
All of this subjugation, destruction, and fist-thumping because you couldn’t find a better way to ensure paternity? My, my, what fear lies beneath. Ya think now might finally be a good time to work on those communication skills a bit more, boys?
You cannot simply destroy women because of the knowledge that they will always take for granted. You cannot expect that trying to ignore, limit, or minimize the depth and richness of their talents and abilities will make them go way just because you’re jealous and physically stronger. No more than the Nazi’s could make the Jews or their ideals disappear forever during WWII. Suppressed people have a fairly strong historical track record of rising up.
The Truth has wings; it always soars above the earth; beyond where you are grounded and fighting. And that is why the truth will always set you free. And that is why after all the persecution and attempted submission of women, many men will stay blood thirsty and insatiably hungry, while women are continuously nourished by the fruits of the tree of knowledge they carried out with them from the Garden of Eden. Even in exile they’ve planted the seeds of knowledge because they know that from them grow the fruits of freedom. This is why the shackles will never bind, and the whips will never mar them, and why even in death they remain freer than most men will ever be in life.
Women don’t need to have a Savior tell them how to make a society blossom and grow, they’ve been doing it all their lives. Men needed to create a Savior who could come upon the earth and prescribe the use of physical strength as a last-stitch effort to save men from being outwitted in a battle of the sexes. Without a Savior telling them what they want to hear and how to get it alternatively through violence and intimidation, they’d be unable to distinguish themselves in positions clearly better suited for women leaders.
Religion, like so many arenas, strives to remain a forum for men to exert their godliness over all. It is not a place which saves us all. It is not a place of equality. It is, simply put, an old-boys-club where signs at the ‘Executive Level Job Board’ read “No Women” and “Women Stay Out”.
We’ve adopted a social framework based on a philosophy whose foundation revolves around a book filled with questionable sources, allegory, and sexually biased ideals and used it to justify the mistreatment, distinction, or elimination of specific groups in order to create and spread a self-righteous value system. Additionally, it mandates conformity for all without equality for over half of the world’s population. Enforcement through fear tactics and domination sanctioned by circular logic pointing back towards ‘The Book,’ as the basis, is no more than a thinly veiled weapon of mass destruction launched in the faces of the members the ideal purports to protect.
And so the world remains violent and torn apart as the fist slams itself down again throughout the world in another demonstration of strength and power. All the while allegedly leading us down the path of freedom. In the meantime, the world still awaits the outcome of yet another war to end all wars.
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, point me towards the history book which contains a female, a homosexual, a non-white, non-WASP (other than JFK) president. Show me a leader of the “free” world who truly understands the separation of church and state when he prays for God to Bless America, our troops, while he restricts the rights of women to their own bodies and invents new ways to establish gender discrimination by refusing to legitimize the relationship of two consensual adults, who happen to be of the same sex, on the basis of the Bible’s teachings. At least for women and homosexuals all of this harkens back to a shameful time in history when we considered Black-Americans as only 3/5 a person and unfit to participate fully in society like the 5/5 human white males could.
I could go on, but what I’m really asking is how far we’ve evolved in a social context since we’ve merged democracy with theocracy and whether now is a good time to learn how to communicate with each other in such a way that the “brave” are those who dare to create a land consisting of the truly equal and free?