This splendid article by Peter Wood in The Chronicle of Higher Education states some hard truths and asks some hard questions about assumptions concerning religion that reign in academia today. How come Christian Fundamentalists are openly discriminated against in educational hiring, while scholars promoting the more ridiculous claims of feminists about a supposed prehistoric matriarchal “golden age” are routinely welcomed and promoted?
There is no real evidence that humanity every passed through a stage in which society was matriarchal, and abundant evidence to the contrary. Goddesses, of course, appear frequently in the world’s religions and myths, but the notion of a great prehistoric cult of the Goddess in Europe connected to matriarchal rule has no foundation.
Why bring this up now? Because higher education’s relaxed attitude about appointing faculty members who not only believe but who actually teach this moonshine demonstrates the hypocrisy of those who say that faculty members are acting out of the need to protect the university from anti-scientific nonsense when they discriminate against conservative Christian candidates for academic appointment. The possibility that a candidate for a position in biology, anthropology, or, say, English literature might secretly harbor the idea that God created the universe or that the Bible is true, is a danger not to be brooked. But apparently, the possibility that a candidate believes that human society was “matriarchal” until about 5,000 years ago is perfectly within the range of respectable opinion appropriate for campus life.
Splendid stuff. A long article, but definitely worth reading. Tip: Cronaca.
How do you explain all those female figurines in Toys”R”Us, if we aren’t currently a goddess dominated society? Do you think Barbie dolls are just toys or something?
Let Barbie put on about 300 lbs., and she’ll look like the Goddess images I’ve seen.
You get a matri-lineal- society when you have so much immorality the identity of the father is uncertain. But a truly matriarchal society – not talking about the occasional queen, but all through society, hasn’t really existed, so far as I know, though something like it does seem to exist in ghettos. Seem. I am not sure but that the male gangs offset that.
Read: The Garbage Generation ( Google it )
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DmHBlGbAJ7oJ:www.fisheaters.com/garbagegeneration.html+%22the+garbage+generation%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari&source=www.google.com
Sorry, the URL was NOT complet. ADD THIS:
neration%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari&source=www.google.com
The modern university is to scholarship as the modern newspaper is to journalism.
Weltzin, it’s curious to me that you directed us to a Google cached page instead of the page itself. Here’s the direct link should anyone want to follow it: http://www.fisheaters.com/garbagegeneration.html
Phil, thanks, I didn’t take the time to HUNT it back up. Saw this about 3 years ago?? Contrasts social views – a “liberal viewpoint” seems to move society toward failure.