In fact, today, all of us are consciously or unconsciously adjusting our religious and mythological belief systems to fit modern realities. Everybody has a different idea of what God is; in a pluralistic society with freedom of religion, that is OK with most people. Of course, even in the recent past this hodgepodge of opinions about the nature of God would have been considered heretical. But now it is as natural as curry in Des Moines or McDonald's in Delhi.

Gender Roles

Psychological sophistication and social critique reveal how males and females are conditioned—even terrorized—into traditional roles. In the insightful little book, Sacred Straight: Why It's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It's So Hard to Be Human, religion scholar Robert Minor explains how, archetypally, men are taught to be leaders, decision-makers, competitors, and warriors. Women are taught to be followers, servants, homemakers, and childrearers. Men are taught to dominate women; women are taught to be submissive to men. Men are taught to suppress feelings and to be always in control; women are taught to be victims of their feelings, to be feckless and needy.

Everybody is supposed to see the world divided dualistically: dominant and submissive, male and female, light and dark, right and wrong. These dualisms preserve the status quo, keeping men in charge—especially men who rise to power within institutions that absorb personal responsibility and free them from accountability. Values in politics and economics are enforced through systems of religion and morality that misdirect attention by focusing on controlling sex and pleasure as though these were the real problems.

These models of men's and women's roles don't apply to modern society. Women are now equal citizens, educated and responsible. A woman is no longer the submissive possession of a man who gives her a name and a reason for living. Reproductive medicine, contraception, sex education, and sexual liberation have altered prevailing arguments about morality.