Ignorance in Religion

Philosphy Discussions Here are some quotations from the feminist theologian Mary Daly. What do you think? 'God's plan' is often a front for men's plans and a cover for inadequacy, ignorance, and evil. I had explained that a woman's asking for equality in the church would be comparable to a black person's demanding equality in the Ku Klux Klan. If God is male, then male is God. The divine patriarch castrates women as long as he is allowed to live on in the human imagination.

Many people consider the Bible to be the Word of God and thus it is infallible. However, it is quite clear that men, both past and present, have used the Bible as a means to bully and dominate women into subservience. This is outmoded and something that should have been left behind several centuries ago. That being said, the analogy between the church/women and black/Klan is an overreach…at least as a generalization.

To be sure, many pastors and churches are blatantly sexist and treat women like second-class citizens. However, such logic and generalizations should nto be applied broadly and should instead be applied only when such an analogy is true…but evne then, the Klan would lynch and kill black people and most churches around the world do not do this. Rational and logical thinking...and its opposite. Unfortunately we haven't really had much time to explore logic and rational thinking -- and its opposite, logical fallacies.

Well, here is a link to a whole lot of logical fallacies -- some of which I had never heard of before: http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Logical%20Fallacies.htm Here's an example of one fallacy that often occurs when people write about religion: anthrocentric (human-centered) fallacy -- This one isn't found in standard texts, but was described by John Stuart Mill in System of Logic.

Consider the example of a preacher who one day takes someone supposedly possessed of a demon, throws his hand on her forehead, and shouts, "Get out! Leave this body!" Even supposing that demons exist, one might find it curious that they understand English, obey peremptory commands, and are easily influenced by incantations and rituals. The a.f. here occurs at the presupposition level: human language, reason, instincts, and desires are assumed to be the orbit around which everything else in the universe (including the aforementioned demons) revolves.

This is not an insignificant question but one could also posit that demons could either read thoughts or understand any languages given that the ostensible cause of all of us speaking different languages, at least initially, was from the Tower of Babel. However, the overarching believe that humans are the center of what is and what exists in the world is indeed probably an overreach but I would say it depends.