Wm Trevor yes saw it the first time and I actually agree!
In the hunt for the best father set in our past it is often true.
But remember, I am asking about religions.
In our hearts we mostly think we should be equal, but in some things, each sex more equal than the other.
A good woman is better at household budgets and maybe kids.
I think, maybe I am wrong, Holly books, every one of them, are not the direct words of God.
That God handed the words down, and some ,ours was written that way.
Eve took the blame for sin? sex is the original sin?
We may find the answer in our mind not Gods.
I will not believe God, any of them, gave women to men as toys or slaves, or that he/she said reproduction is dirty.

Dear Belly,

I came across this in a sociology text book,
a chapter on Sexuality and Society.
I found it interesting. I hope that you and others
will as well:

"The traditional sexual values of Australian society,
and of Western society in general, have their roots
in a particular interpretation of ancient Judeo-
Christian morality. Sexual activity can have two
basic purposes: reproduction and pleasure. The
Western tradition has strongly emphasized the former
and has generally disapproved of the latter.

Sex was morally acceptable if the partners were married
and if their primary purpose was reproduction: sex for
pleasure alone, especially by unmarried partners, was
considered immoral.

The traditon that the main purpose of sex is to produce
children comes from the Old TEstament, which urges the
faithful to "be fruitful and multiply," censures those
who "waste" their seed, and imposes severe penalties for
non-reproductive sexual acts.

The negative emphasis on sexuality, with its blanket
prohibition on sex outside marriage, comes from
the New Testament - not from the teachings of Jesus, who
had little to say about sex, but from those of Saint Paul,
who recommended total abstention from sex and tolerated
marriage only on the grounds that it was "better to marry
than to burn."

By the early Middle Ages sex was virtually equated with
sin: the doctrines of the medieval Church
"were based, quite simply, upon the conviction that the
sexual act was to be avoided like the plague, except
for the bare minimum necessary to keep the race in
existence."

The Church not only insisted that priests
be celibate, but even tried to limit marital sex,
forbidding it on Sundays, Wednesdays, and eventually
Fridays, with the equivalent of about five months
of the year."

cont'd...

cont'd ...

"Subsequent centuries were marked by alternating periods
of restrictiveness and relative permissiveness, with
particularly restrictive attitudes occurring among
the early Puritans and among the Victorians of the
past century. Masturbation was regarded as a dreadful
vice that caused such maladies as deafness,
blindness, and insanity. Some lunatic asylums even had
separate wards for inmates who were believed to be
victims of this "self-abuse."

It's interesting to note that for centuries, the sense of
the erotic as sinful has been compounded by the
double-standard, an unspoken expectation that restrictive
rules of sexual conduct should be strictly applied to
women, but leniently to men.

Women were considered pure and chaste, a notion
which ultimately led to a widely accepted myth that
(with the possible exception of prostitutes) women
were essentially sexless.

These tradition values remain powerful in our society
today, although attitudes vary greatly according to
age, sex, religion, place of residence, and level
of education. Sex for some is still sometimes regarded
as somehow dirty and unmentionable, and the practices
that do not potentially lead to reproduction are
considered perverted.

Despite the introduction of sex-education programs into
many schools, a conspiracy of silence may still prevent
the young from obtaining accurate and objective
information about sex. The mass media generally refuse
to carry advertisements for birth-control products.

Parents if they discuss sex with their offspring at all,
often do so with embassassment, and most information is
acquired from the peer group."

Yet - opinion polls today show substantial tolerance for
diversity in sexual behaviour (the birth-control pill
permitted a separation of the pleasurable from the
reproductive aspects of sexual behaviour). The
polls also show a continued commitment to relationship
fidelity and a declining interest in promiscuity.

Its hoped that judgements about right or wrong
in sexual matters today will generally be based
on the attitude that
moral behaviour is that which involves mutual affection
and respect and does no physical or psychological harm to
those involved.

Lexi all very true, this thread is not a Trojan Horse, I did not start it to under mine belief.
I am looking for answers and expecting they will come from human minds not Gods.
Much of the Bible it can be said was selected for publication, while parts excluded.
But are men stoned to death for Adultery?
Some burn wives alive after the husband dies.
To what end? priests must be celebrate?
Is it not bringing the wrong folk to the job?
Child brides are from many creeds, but surely wrong for modern man?
I need to under stand why we do two things, put our belief before all others, even excluding them completely.
And why we maintain SOME belief that is harmful to one sex or one race.

'Sex was morally acceptable if the partners were married
and if their primary purpose was reproduction: sex for
pleasure alone, especially by unmarried partners, was
considered immoral.'

Still is Lexi. The Creator does not change His mind with the wind like people who refuse to face their sin and have it forgiven.

Dear runner,

I don't belong to your congregation and you
are not my preacher so kindly stop preaching
patronising, or interpreting what you think God
said et cetera. That is simply arrogant.
If you can't post in an objective, respectful, manner -
DON'T! I don't enjoy interacting with a narrow-minded
person like you - and I would prefer not to do so
in the future.