False Information in ‘Conversations with God’

[How to be wise]

Having read Neale Donald Walsch’s trilogy, I have spotted several things that God asserts that I have investigated, and found to be factually false. I will mention one example here. 

There’s a story that God tells about how the devil was invented. The summary is that women were in charge in prehistoric times, then men invented the concept of the devil and used it to overthrow the women and to put themselves in charge. 

At first I was fascinated by this fact. That women were in charge of society in the ancient past, but were overthrown by the disaffected males was very intriguing. I decided to look it up. This is what I found:

“A belief that women's rule preceded men's rule was, according to Haviland, "held by many nineteenth-century intellectuals". The hypothesis survived into the 20th century and was notably advanced in the context of feminism and especially second-wave feminism, but the hypothesis is mostly discredited today, most experts saying that it was never true.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matriarchy

It was extremely disappointing. When you take into account that the book was written in the 90s, it’s pretty clear what happened: God just regurgitated what people believed at that time. 

Although the book is still incredibly useful, I would caution believing all of the technical information. I have found several other assertions of God to be false. 

[Leo Gura]

You are God.

[How to be wise]

@Leo Gura I’m speaking relatively not absolutely. In the absolute realm, there would be no discussion. 

[Raze]

Today tribes which don’t have contact with regular society live some what egalitarian, and it is believed that is what ancient humans lived like. However after the cognitive revolution and some genetic bottleneck human civilization formed with more male dominance. I also believe research has found societies that live with less competition become more egalitarian / slightly more female dominated but develop less, while societies with more competition / outside threats become more male dominated and have more development. So it could still be somewhat true in some form.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Raze

[A_v_E]

@How to be wise Absolute & relatives are imaginary constructions.
 

[Eyowey]

I think women have always been in charge and still are behind the scenes because they are very cultish. While men are competing with each other women come together as a team and strategize. Brute force wins in the short term but strategy wins in the long term.

Men would have never allowed feminism to happen if they were in charge. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Eyowey

[amanen]

You're not going to find the truth in any book

[Petals]

@How to be wise I am not trying to defend 'Conversations' but you looked up a Wikipedia article, so that doesn't prove much. It even says 'most experts saying' so there is no consensus as it seems. And science can be wrong, too. Maybe there was one specific culture in which females were dominant and there this idea first arose. I don't know. I am curious what the other instances of false information are.

[LordFall]

What is your understanding of ancient societies and what fact was disproved? AFAIK before the agricultural revolution, it's very possible that women were more or less in charge. There was no organized warfare nor accumulation of capital so the ways for a single man or group of men to seize power were limited. People lived in family tribes of 25-50 and since all the men collectively hunted and no individual one exponentially more power than another so perhaps women had more leverage when it came to choosing who to mate with.

It seems a bit silly to discredit the point without fully investigating it, I feel like it could be true. 

[AtheisticNonduality]

That's not the kind of thing to be taken literally.

10 hours ago, amanen said:

You're not going to find the truth in any book forum comment

 

[Leo Gura]

You don't actually know it is false. We're talking about a very long time in the past.

[thisintegrated]

On 22/11/2022 at 0:16 AM, How to be wise said:

At first I was fascinated by this fact. That women were in charge of society in the ancient past, but were overthrown by the disaffected males was very intriguing. I decided to look it up. This is what I found:

“A belief that women's rule preceded men's rule was, according to Haviland, "held by many nineteenth-century intellectuals". The hypothesis survived into the 20th century and was notably advanced in the context of feminism and especially second-wave feminism, but the hypothesis is mostly discredited today, most experts saying that it was never true.”

That's an incredibly simplistic take.  There are millions of societies in the "ancient past".  99.999% were dominated by men.  It's only in weird niche cults/religions, and societies in which physical labor has little value, that women can be equal or dominant.

 

19 hours ago, AtheisticNonduality said:

You're not going to find the truth in any book forum comment

???

Book? When??

[EternalForest]

On 11/22/2022 at 0:47 AM, Eyowey said:

I think women have always been in charge and still are behind the scenes because they are very cultish. While men are competing with each other women come together as a team and strategize. Brute force wins in the short term but strategy wins in the long term.

Men would have never allowed feminism to happen if they were in charge. 

Misandry bullshit