I once went to some gathering and a woman took to the stage and rattled off a whole series of Biblical quotes that basically denigrated or at best, labelled women as second class citizens. A religious bod took the stage after her and declared that she had been lying. Not all those quotes were in the Bible.
I got a transcript and followed each and every one of them up and sure enough, she had done her homework.
I must confess a complete state of ambivalence when it comes to religion and even the religious texts to some extent. It's one thing for the religious bods to get a bit full of themselves and draw all sorts of illogical conclusions, but when the religion has so many statements that would have the writer locked up in a rubber room in a heartbeat today, one has to wonder.
There's something fundamental in our need for religion. It's as fundamental as sex, love and family. Even those who reject it do so with a pathological will that is not dissimilar to the, poofter basher, who is afraid of what he feels, some urge in himself that he's trying to subdue with appalling actions. Atheists are drawn to religion like bees to nectar, even if only to voice their opinion.
None of this is a solution, all I'm offering is my profound confusion. Why must religion ever be a riddle trapped inside a conundrum? Science is no better. Science just keeps pulling apart Russian dolls. There's always something more inside.
Just out of curiosity, are there any other talking animals in the Bible? We have a snake and a donkey and a burning bush that talk that I know of.
