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Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future

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Before it's too late

I do not read non-fiction. I am not a rabid feminist, a follower of airy mythic cults, nor am I particularly interested in religious theory of any kind. So an effort like J. Lyn Studebaker's Switching to Goddess is the last book I would likely choose to read. Yet read it I did, and now I am not only convinced, but also armed with an arsenal of arguments and common sense weapons that enable me to do battle with Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and all other contemporary religions that have systematically sickened mankind for the past 6000 years.
I do not mind admitting that I was born into the Christian tradition. But over the years Jehovah, the religion's CEO, has come to seem more and more like a jealous, vengeful, vicious, misogynous, war-loving maniac responsible for millions of deaths. Anyone who doesn't precisely agree with this CEO is relegated to everlasting hell...his way, or the highway. Plus, as Studebaker points out, this boss doesn't much care for playfulness, creativity, sensuality, or even women...which pretty much leaves a gal like me out of the loop.
I do not fail to notice that CEOs Allah, Indra, and Yahweh are equally unforgiving and bloodthirsty. While religious wars continue to rage in our Twenty-First Century world, not only in the Middle East but right here in the USA, where the Religious Right and stone-throwing intolerance are making frightening comebacks, Switching to Goddess teaches us that we must find different gods to guide us...and soon. We must forsake concepts like armed, arsenal, weapons, and do battle...all words I used in the first paragraph, and steer away from faith induced self annihilation.
I do not normally read scholarly books, but J. Lyn Studebaker was sneaky. In Switching to Goddess she time warped me through the long Neolithic era, through the Bronze Age, right up until this moment. She proved through art, social and anthropological patterns, and with archeological evidence that for most of human history we all worshiped Goddess and were happier, healthier, peaceful, and much nicer people under Her tutelage. Studebaker taught with such witty, fun- loving, tongue-in-cheek, occasionally sarcastic, often sacrilegious, zippy, and engaging language that it didn't even hurt to learn so much.
I do not climb onto soapboxes, but underlying Studebaker's research and her feisty delivery, I was stricken sober by the stunningly important message: switching to Goddess is humanity's ticket to the future, our only ticket. So now I am on that soapbox hoping everyone will read this book before it is too late.
I do not listen to activists who urge us to do something, but fail to provide one clue as to HOW to do that thing we need to do. Studebaker spells it out, the ways and means of reversing our downward religious spiral and replacing our destructive sky/war/father gods with nurturing guiding Goddesses who will love us all unconditionally, just as all healthy mothers love their children...and we can, and must, do this by 2035.
So, in conclusion, if a naysayer like me needed to read this book, then so do you. Please buy it today and let's see what we all can do to help make the switch.

This important book helps us to understand our true past, without the feelings of despair that often accompanies the knowledge of what we lost. As someone who has read many of the sources she references, I appreciated having the author synthesize the information into one coherent book that also includes hopeful visions for the future.

Although the author writes as a scholar, her tone is vastly different from typical objective-style scholarly books. She retains wit and humor throughout the book, which is surprising, and seems out of place, at first. However, the reader becomes used to this tone and then comes to appreciate the author "holding the reader's hand" throughout the book as she explains terms like "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" and why authors and scholars cannot just use years to differentiate the periods. Also, when she describes archeological sites she places them in terms of modern-day geography, which helped me a lot. Her images and other pictures add much to the text.

I enjoyed the analysis of present-day cultures such as Moso and the Basques to use as models, and especially enjoyed learning about the Bonobu monkeys which behave vastly different from Chimpanzees, although both share 98 percent of their genes with humans. The Bonobos use sex to calm each other down and males do not beat females, like chimps do.

The author maintains that many of our modern-day ideas like democracy and conveniences such as indoor plumbing were alive and well during the time periods that Goddess-worship was the rule not the exception. She also described time periods when the Goddess made a comeback, only to be struck down again by the War God. Especially for modern-day Goddess-centered believers, it is a fascinating, compelling, and uplifting read.

This book is so wonderful. I want to keep reading it. The author not only makes her point, but does it with such great facts. I learned so much from this book. Buy it and learn!!

I am not exaggerating by saying Switching to Goddess is one of the most important books I have ever read. It traces the Goddess as She has been worshipped throughout human history - and deftly illustrates the enormous ramifications for societies that follow Her guidance versus those that have been shaped by beliefs in patriarchal, hierarchical gods. The author, J. Lyn Studebaker, brings to life a deity that is a warm, loving, healthy, all-embracing, compassionate Mother Goddess, a stark contrast to not only the war-gods but even the war-goddesses of ancient and modern civilizations.

Along the way of this fascinating journey through the history of societies around the globe, the reader is treated to fun, absorbing stories and explanations of a wide range of topics, including the methods of archeology and the definitions of "civilization" and "culture." By the end, a new understanding of our true nature and what shapes human behavior becomes apparent. I came away looking at everything differently, so much more aware of both the overt and subtle brainwashing we have all been subjected to by organized religion and by living in a patriarchal society.

I loved Studebaker's style of writing - well researched and informative, yet also fun and irreverent. It exemplifies the playful nature that she emphasizes is part of a healthy Goddess-guided society, and makes learning easy - I will probably always remember her explanations of the different archeological "ages" (ex. palaeolithic, neolithic), something that reading a dry textbook would not have accomplished had I read it a dozen times.

Best of all is the hope that lies throughout the book, especially at the end as Studebaker illustrates how the Goddess has never really left and has been brought down to us through ancient and modern times under various guises (including Jesus's mother, Mary) and is now primed to return in full force. Seeing that humanity has always felt Her in their hearts, however deeply hidden, is a testament to the author's certainty, and now mine, that it is a loving Mother Goddess that guides the universe.

Ms Studebaker's book provides an brilliant insight into humanity's need for the feminine aspect of the Divinity. The book offers a rich historical background, and presents ample basis for asserting that the feminine in humanity could & should enable a less competitive, less confrontational,harmonious, integrated world order. I highly recommend this book to all people concerned with their personal religious growth and with social progress towards a peaceful future.When God Was a WomanAncient Mirrors of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from Around the World

There is a major problem with Studebaker's thesis that there was a "goddess" culture overturned by a "war gods" culture. It never happened.

Sure, there were some feminists in the 1960s who proposed such a scenario. But further archaeological research has soundly refuted the idea.

As archaeologist Prof Lynn Meskell, of Stanford University, has pointed out, the majority of the figurines Studebaker calls 'Mother Goddesses" weren't even of women, let alone being being figurines of some kind of goddess; the vast majority of figurines were of cattle or sheep or goats.

But most conclusive of all, all the so-called "Mother Goddess" figurines were found in the trash. Always in the trash, discarded like old toys. Which is likely what they were. They were never--not once--found in niches, or places of honor, and never in burials, as seen in all cultures for revered religious objects.

As for Studebaker's claim there was ever a culture of peace and love in the Neolithic, here is archaeologist Brian Hayden on the subject "There is abundant evidence for warfare during the Middle and Late and even Early Neolithic."

Even Otzi was shown to have died from an arrow in his back. Exactly the opposite of the "non-violent, egalitarian, democratic, rich, sensual, playful" goddess worshipers Studebaker fantasizes on about. What nonsense. Life was brutal, life was short, and you had to keep dodging arrows from the village around the bend.

And although Studebaker keeps going on about the niceness of this goddess religion she invents, then why is she so condemning about other people's religions?

Much of what she claims is wrong. "The Bible focuses on parents cannibalizing their kids" (p 206), she announces. Nonsense. There is nothing about cannibalizing children at all.

Yes, the Old Testament does include mention of the evil done by those who follow the pagan religion of Moloch. They, like the Carthaginians, killed their children. Now, the Bible is very, very clear about how evil this practice is. The practice is condemned, for pity's sake. And the practice had zip to do with "starvation cultures". The Carthaginians were wildly wealthy. Didn't she do any research at all?

Stubebaker practically froths at the mouth at the mention of Jesus. Apparently the idea that God condemns some people to hell really, really upsets her. Whereas "with the goddess, it doesn't matter what you do" (p 280).

So there is no punishment for Hitler? No reason to condemn the communists for the one hundred and fifty million human beings they slaughtered in the living memory of people today? And what about even the everyday newspaper story about a man who gave an 18 month old baby gonorrhea?

This is a world that includes profound evil. It is dismaying to have Studebaker invent a religion which has no concept of right or wrong. How could she tell a Jew the that 6 million slaughtered in the holocaust that "it doesn't matter what" Hitler did?

At the same time, she is very interested in blaming everybody else, especially men and war, for all the ills of mankind.

She insists that the bible, Koran, Talmud (I think she means the Old Testament here) and the Bhagvad-Gita have "poisoned and still poison the human species" (p 281).

"The Bible...has had a profoundly nasty effect on you, your culture, and your behavior." Mother Teresa and St Francis of Assisi are great examples of that.

She is amazed "no one I have ever talked to seems even remotely" (p 281) interested in removing portions of the Bible that she doesn't like. The narcissism is breathtaking, isn't it?