Seen on the Martian Anthropologist: Sunday school teacher dumped for being female.
The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.
The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
No, this is not a joke. It happened a couple of days ago, too, instead of in the Dark Ages, which might have been your first guess.
As the Martian said: it’s right there in the Bible. This nutcase of a reverend didn’t just make it up because he hates women (he probably does, but the Bible fully supports his middle-ages-style misogynism). The “word of God”, after all, is with him. He is simply being a devout, true Christian.
That’s the problem I described in Picking and Choosing: the Bible, as a book, is a very harmful, dangerous, and evil influence, unless you pick and choose from it, believe in just the “nicer” parts, and ignore about 90% of it. Which is what most Christians actually do, and which is the reason why most of them haven’t read most of the Bible. (Now, call me weird, but if I did believe that a book was actually the work of a god, I’d find the time to read and study all of it… but that’s another story)
Of course, the problem, then, is that what they are really doing is… say that 90% of the “word of God” is crap. And they say atheists are “arrogant”… at least, we’re convinced that there is no god, while picking-and-choosing Christians believe that there is one, but that they know better than him. 
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This is a tiny example of what I despise most about religion.
Now lets not forgett people, there are witches out there and yes although they are pleasent.
We just have to burn them.
Im not going to go into anything due to it being 7 in the morning here.
Tool : My god needs like I do, We both want to rape you….
come on, man. the Martian Anthropologist is an anonymous blogger.
And that matters because…?
Anyway, the article is on CNN. The Martian didn’t make it up.
The thing about the bible is that God never took the time to grab a pencil.
So the bible, (I’ve said this before) is something written by individuals.
Many different individuals, with many different views such as
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
So instead of people taking cues from God, they’re listening to other people.
People with 2000 year old mindsets.
This is where problems begin. The people of this or that religion begin doing horrible things to other
people because someone said it was the “WORD OF GOD” way before Gods lawyers could say “no comment”.
Obviousely there’s nothing wrong with picking and choosing, leaving out such horrid things is probably the best thing to do.
The thing about the bible is that God never took the time to grab a pencil.
So the bible, (I’ve said this before) is something written by individuals.
You just made my argument.
While I agree with both of you that the bible was written by individuals, which leaves room for human error even if it was inspired by god, many people would argue that God was speaking through the authors of the bible and that they ARE his exact words. I’m not saying that’s rational, but neither are all people. Either way, there’s no way to prove either one.
Tony: but then, how are people supposed to know which parts are really from God, and which are just the bigotry of the writers? After all, anyone can pick and choose the parts that are in accordance with their own way of thinking…
For any one who says “God is love” and “love your brother”, there’s someone who says “homosexuals are an an abomination” and “women are inferior to men.” Both of those are fully supported by the Bible…
You cannot believe that god recited an entire book to a couple of people.
I use this logic.
If god came down and spoke to me and sat me through his book and told me about hell.
I (just like everyone else) would never have the balls to put my own opinions in there.
Never ever ever ever, if god is real I’m not going to hell for a point of view.
And also god “speaks” to all of the most fanatic members of all religions.
Wait I thought only Mormons go to heaven. How could you believe in people.
I mean everyone should have personal polygraph tests around their necks.
I don’t know about you but I’ve been lied to a hell of a lot.
Not to mention by people lying to be recognized and validated.
If you don’t understand my point.
Stuff u.