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March 27, 2019, First deity

When I was very young, I was fascinated by the images of little statues of stone of what I was told was an ancient fertility goddess. I knew only of the male god. I thought it was cool that at one time women had a deity of their own.

The little statues have been found around Europe and parts of Asia and were made between 34,000 BCE (before common era, which is the same time as BC but without the religious connection) and 16,000 BCE. It was not until the late Neolithic period that two male deities appeared, Tiamat in Mesopotamia and Ra in Ancient Egypt. The little fertility goddess was the first, and longest lasting, deity.

A few current religions have gods and goddesses. Several religions have a single deity, a male deity. Christianity sort of has several gods - The Father, The son and The Holy Ghost but only one real God known as Jehovah or Yahweh.

In the beginning, as was explained to me by my history professor, there was only one deity, a fertility goddess and she was much honored as the creator of life. And women, as creators of human life, were thought to be magic and were honored, were the ruling sex, and were well treated. It was a peaceful time.

Then it was noticed that women could only have children after a short visit from a male. And that changed everything. Men reasoned that they were the real creators of life. They planted a seed in a woman and she was the soil in which his seed grew. The peaceful fertility goddess was replaced with male warrior gods. Then women went from cherished creators of life to a pot of dirt. This belief existed until the 1600's and was the reason for women being without power or importance.

All too often women are still being treated like a pot of dirt, despite the discovery that women were the first sex, existing a long, long, time before men evolved from women, but not from a rib.

My history professor said the discovery that women could not create life without men was the down fall of humanity. Goddesses are caring and nurturing. Gods like to boss and kill people.

It is time to inject a bit of estrogen into the testosterone flooding our world. It is time to acknowledge that female was and is the first sex and females are the creators of life, albeit, with the assistance of males. But one lone man can service a huge village of women.  Do we really need so many men?  Just kidding.  I have a son, a son-in-law and four delightful grandsons and I must confess I have a soft spot for our late arriving companions. And, yes, I think we do need them.  But we need to teach them to be more observent and more empathic.