The Bible is sexist.

Thank you so much for this debate- it was wonderful to be doing this with you, and I'm sad to see it finished. I'm hoping we can do more debates together afterward. I've never seen what you've done in terms of a conclusion, but I'd like to thank you for your honest points and evaluation of my argument. It was very carefully thought out and very helpful to remember for my next debates, so thank you. I agree that women will also be punished in terms of that curse, and to be honest, I never really thought of that before, so thank you. But I'll still hold by my point that it was mostly the men who will be affected by that command. God's words aren't directly aimed at the gatherers like you said, although certain lines are ('thorns and thistles' is the main one). All that it says is that 'the ground is cursed, they must eat plants of the field (before, they could simply pluck it off of trees), they would have to work to get their food (the sweat of their face), and they would eventually die (which is by FAR the biggest curse for both Adam and Eve). The fact is, both Adam and Eve would have to work to prepare food. Eve might do the gathering, but naturally, Adam would do more of the hard physical labor. As for the Deuteronomy point, I apologize if I didn't fully understand your point and ended up rambling and getting sidetracked. I see now that it was a rabbit trail, and I'll try to stay on track from now on. All I can really say here is that it's a difference of opinion, and just something that I don't know a lot about. Your points were very valid, but to be honest, I really don't know enough about the topic to be able to really discuss them, so I'm going to move on. I would like to continue to state my belief, however, that both men and women can be at fault in this situation, and there is nothing that suggests that God will not punish them both equally, even if this specific verse is directed at women. I'm glad we've both agreed on a definition with regards to morality- it's something we should have done in the very first round, and it's resulted in a lot of confusion for both of us. I agree that we are getting very bogged down in the idea of "superior" and "important" and "valuable". But I also disagree with your final conclusion. If a husband "rules over" his wife, that won't always mean that he's a more important person. The President (or King, or whoever rules over the place where you live) rules over you, but that doesn't make him more valuable in the eyes of God. Your boss at work, or your teacher at your school, or your parents all "rule over" you, but that doesn't mean that they are better people. You said that "it doesn't matter if God likes men and women equally. All that matters in our debate is their status on the physical world of earth". As for this point, all I can say is that you and I have a very different idea of what this debate is about. To me, their status on earth has been given to them by God, and it is a role from him, but as a Christian, I believe that worth is determined not by their position on a made-up hierarchy, but their worth as a child of God, made in his image (Genesis 1:26). There is no verse that suggests that a woman plays the role of a slave- I've already given you several verses where God-fearing women are glorified. I do believe that the Bible gives women an equal opportunity to participate in politics, society, and the economy, but I believe that this does not mean that they have the exact same roles. The men's job is to be a leader and a teacher, but the woman's role is to be a nurturer and a helper. No role is less important than the other. Thank you so much for your comments- I'm still trying to figure out a lot of this myself, and haven't really studied this topic a lot, so I suppose I wasn't really grounded in a lot of my ideas, specifically about women talking in church. Next time, I'll try to focus more on the main point. Thank you so much for this wonderful debate- I really hope we can keep on debating in the future.