Why do we have only one deity when there used to be so many? Where did the idea of marriage come from? What was so significant about grain? How did the disparity between rich and poor begin? When did we go from revering the Earth to treating it like a resource to be plundered? The answers are in our stories. We Humans have been telling stories since our earliest beginnings. The stories grew in the telling until they became the myths and legends that framed our cultural beliefs. They explained our world and taught us how to treat one another. The consequences, for better or worse, cannot easily be escaped.
Why Men Made God coalesces the stories that led to modern Western culture into a chronological narrative. New insights and patterns emerge. Gradual changes in our attitudes toward gender and power, toward property and the earth become clear. These changes are mirrored in the supernatural deities that were worshipped in each cultural stage along the way. A global climate crisis threatens all of us. How we talk about it is affecting how we deal with it. Understanding what our stories were and how they evolved empowers us to change the story we tell now, and in so doing, change our future.
