There's no doubt that some parts in the Bible are influenced by the contemporary social attitudes, so that's why it's important to distinguish between the cultural elements and what is God's revelation. Arguing that God hates women based on the examples you list is a simplistic literal interpretation that is a very superficial way to understand the Bible.

You also cherry-pick some episodes, so I recommend for your reading this book: Courageous Women: A Study on the Heroines of Biblical History
Author: Stacy Mitch, ISBN: 1-931018-09-X, 978-1-931018-09-8
Publish Date: 2002

It's not all bad news for women in the Bible. As you suggest, "it's the interpreter who twists the text" so you might argue that Eve was created from Adam’s bone and therefore she is superior to the muck from which he was created; Eve was created within Paradise whereas Adam was first created then introduced into Paradise; woman was created after man as the crowning glory of God’s creation; a woman gave birth to the Son of God; it was a woman (Mary Magdalene) to whom Jesus first revealed himself after the resurrection, and the Virgin Mary sits at the right hand of God.

The authors’ penchant for speculative fiction and exaggeration is alive and well but does it really have a place in the 21st century?

Anyone with a shred of common sense surely doesn’t believe in the contents of the Bible any more than they would believe in the contents of the Book of the Dead, the ancient Egyptian equivalent which survived for 3,000 years. Like its successor, the Bible, both are regarded as being a collection of fables and myths which tried to explain happenings in the world of that time.

But this is the 21st century where science and fiction have a much clearer divide. Surely these primitive notions are no more believed than is the virgin birth and bodily resurrection from the dead, or for that matter the belief that there is a god or that he can be used to explain the modern world.

I have always held the gravest doubts about institutions granting degrees in theology, involving study and writing on a fiction. No integrity, no value, just a fiction.

And that is precisely how sensible women should regard the way they are classified and treated by religious texts and thinkers. Those who believe in the natural evolution of humans, rather than delusions about some fictitious divinity, know that they have vast potential and with sufficient will and determination can realise it.

The last thing women should do is believe or comply with the limiting, classifying views of a religious organisations or leaders purporting to represent divine decisions. Those decisions are, more often than not, based on fiction, made by men for their advantage, based on superstitious nonsense or, like the question ‘Does God Hate Women’ a load of drivel.

Only fools who are selective and dishonest in there historical views would deny that the Christian Judea based society have given women more freedom and status than any other time in history. Unfortunately of late the secularist have sexualized young girls and boys to the extent where teenagers measure themselves according to sexual appeal. Feminism has done much to destroy family structure where women are encouraged to be totally selfish and ignore their natural mothering instincts. Does God hate women? He certainly would not send HIs Son to die for people he hates. I would suggest it is the secularist who hate God because he knows much better than them. They are caught in their own lusts and fail to see any moral boundaries that create healthy society. People who were honest enough to face up to their own corruption would not ask such a stupid question from a God who have them life, food and clothing. It is the sheer arrogance of men and women that leads to such dumb articles being written.

It's not really surprising considering that the only idea of human reproduction the writers of the Bible had was that men "planted their seed" in women. Which, from their point of view, made sense: after all, farmers planted seeds in the ground, and if the ground was sufficiently nourishing, the seed grew. Men planted their stuff in women, and waddaya know, babies brew. Therefore, if the seed failed to grow, the woman was obviously barren ground.

All of which fit neatly into their fiercely patriarchal mindset, as well.

But, to answer your article's question: as Ben Elton once said, "three reasons why God hates women: periods, pregnancy and pap smears".

When are you people going to realise that the God of the Bible is a figment of the imagination of men. So what else do you expect. Their attitudes toward women are no different to the attitudes of most Moslem and Jewish men of today. A large number of Christian denominations also look upon women as inferior beings. You only have to look at the Catholic Church for a typical example. Look at the teachings of Paul.

David