Well, I disagree with you — or rather, I disagree with you about faith. Religion as an institution — I think you have a point there. BUT… I’m not into pushing my views on anyone else. You have the right, thankfully, to be an atheist or agnostic or whatever you like. I am glad we no longer live in an era where the state sponsored religion and people were forced to go against their conscience.

I am a person of faith and this has helped me immensely in many areas of my life, including fighting cancer. 17 years ago I was diagnosed with a type IV cancer and doctors gave me 6 months to live. My faith did help me immensely in terms of getting through that tough time. But of course there are people of alternative faiths, or no faith at all, who also go through tough times and thrive.

For me, I simply acknowledge how faith has helped ME and also that we are all different. What helps me is obviously not the same as what helps you.

Re. the two lines you refer to — there are many, many passages and sections which empower all sorts of people including women. In some cases, passages were translated in a way that put a misogynistic spin on a neutral original text. For example, in the early church, both men and women could be elders. Both men and women could preach. It was only later that this changed. And the Holy Spirit was referred to using feminine pronouns in at least some ancient texts. God was referred as “male and female” in the passage on creation. Similar to how in early Hindu texts the goddesses were fully the equivalent of the gods, but later they devolved as well so that the males are the true gods and the females simply their consorts. In actuality, of course, in the earliest societies, it was the feminine that was considered holy… as women were the ones who brought forth life…