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Societies without God: immoral hell or egalitarian health? pt. 3

Posted onTuesday 2 July 2013Monday 1 July 2013

What Is Patriarchy? In yesterday’s post I stated that the growing lack of interest in organized, patriarchal religion in Scandinavia is not some simple, casual social cause-and-effect, but rather the unplanned byproduct of the social elimination of patriarchy. This may sound startling, but I have a number of excellent reasons for this statement. First, though,…

Societies without God: immoral hell or egalitarian health? pt. 2

Posted onMonday 1 July 2013Sunday 30 June 2013

Zuckerman writes a fascinating book with a great deal of startling information in it, and I greatly enjoyed reading it. However, after pondering the book for some time, I believe the author has missed the true revelation which his data offers. He considers himself a nonbeliever/agnostic (7-8), and so this Scandinavian lack of religiosity appears…

Societies without God: immoral hell or egalitarian health? pt. 1

Posted onFriday 28 June 2013Saturday 29 June 2013

(all the numbers in brackets within this posting are citations which reference the stated page numbers within the book Society Without God by Phil Zuckerman) A common trope amongst the devout is that morality is derived from religion, and therefore a society lacking strong religious beliefs would be an utterly immoral, un-free, irrational society which…

Lazy post-travel posting ;)

Posted onWednesday 19 June 2013

Got home safe & sound, much to my relief — I really prefer my own nice little futon. Wanted a really simple crockpot recipe for my first dinner at home again, so tried this. The smell was fabulous all day long — yum! I served it with a salad first, to make sure we all…

"Other" review | Family | LIBRARY | Random

Daughter of Auntie of St. Louis

Posted onMonday 17 June 2013Monday 17 June 2013

One pick-up truck. Four people. One steep flight of basement stairs. Forty six comics long boxes. Ow. That, of course, does not count the boxes the day before which we (just two of us this time) hucked up the basement stairs to muggy garage and thence into the packing pod, which the company came and…

Two fascinating examples of women’s resistance to oppression

Posted onSaturday 15 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

An excellent historical example of increasing patriarchal domination of women, and their ensuing resistance, is feminist historian and professor Ulrike Strasser’s “Bones of Contention: Catholic Nuns Resist their Enclosure.” The Pütrich nuns of Munich were established in the 13th century. Like all nuns at that time, they were not cloistered and therefore served extensively in…

The pain behind Fire Eyes

Posted onFriday 14 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

Trigger warning: this documentary review covers female genital mutilation. Don’t read further if you are easily squicked, please. ~ * ~ *~ *~ *~ * ~ We see activism as it happens in Soraya Miré’s short 1994 documentary film Fire Eyes. As a victim of the practice who has chosen to become a survivor, her…

Wisdom worth listening to: Daughters of Mother Earth

Posted onThursday 13 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

Daughters of Mother Earth: The Wisdom of Native American Women, edited by Barbara Alice Mann, offers us a view of ecofeminism rooted in indigenous women’s teachings (one caveat: when I use “we,” I am recognizing that I, like the Whites being written about, am speaking from a position of social privilege which is and should…

St. Louis: everyone’s charming old auntie, part 2

Posted onWednesday 12 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

The temperatures here in St. Louis are, in a word, psychotic. It may be either pleasantly warm, muggy and hot, or pouring rain outside — but the air conditioning will be blasting in any building you enter. I can’t decide whether to swelter in my sweatshirt outside, or shiver in my shirtsleeves inside. Constantly taking…

St. Louis: everyone’s charming auntie, part 1

Posted onTuesday 11 June 2013Monday 10 June 2013

Sadly, flying has become more of an annoyance than an adventure. I’m not surprised most of the airlines are struggling, considering their attempts to sneakily ding you with constant, unrelenting fees stacked on hidden fees. Fortunately we deliberately packed light so all our luggage was carry-on, and I always travel well-stocked with good books. Also,…