Religion and spiritual beliefs have always fascinated me. Being exposed to religion as I was as a child (heavily catholic family) and everything I have learned from other religions I have created my own belief system. I have been thinking a lot lately about the roll trans people are here to play in our society. Here is goes. I believe that we all have a soul, an energy force inside of us and that energy is who we really are. Our bodies are just vesicles for our soul. (what happens to the soul when our body dies, who know.) Trans people are here to show the world that our bodies are not what they think, they are interchangeable. What they think makes a man a man and a woman a woman is false. The way hormones can change our bodies is amazing. WE are here to show the world that what we look like does not matter, that gender is a construct that they created that we are taring apart. What matters is what our souls look like. I dont know. Just some super hippie stuff I have been thinking. Figured I would share. Its a nice thought.
That is an interesting way to think about it. That there is some aspect of the soul that is separate from the physical body is something that has been debated by many. There are some who would say that a person's identity is determined by anatomy and can't be separated from the physical body. I hadn't considered that the very existence of trans people could be evidence of the soul, but in a way it makes sense. If one's identity is inseparable from their physical body, why do some know deep down that that body is not truly theirs?
Hmm. ^_^ I have thought similarly, though my vocabulary would reflect a more, how to say... social-scientific ish perspective rather than a spiritual one; not that I mind the spiritual one. I think trans people are rendering the whole of society a great favor in breaking down gender dorms. For this is for trans people something we do for ourselves to be happy; ot break those norms might be the wish of many a cis person; however, cis people don't have that motivation that they need to do it to be able to properly leave a normal life.
One of the reason I like a lot more spiritual stuff is because you can find evidence of it in nature and our society. I love the social science outlook on things. How what we are doing right now is going to change our society years down the road. That our social norms will look very different and we are apart of that change.
I hate it when people say they're "tearing apart gender" or that "gender doesn't exist". Obviously, gender does exist. There's just some biological facts I don't think you can deny, such as bio-men are naturally more aggressive and bio-women are naturally capable of birthing children. (unless there's something wrong with their hormones/parts) I think that transgender people are developed in a similar manner as intersex people, and studies talking about brain structures in transgender individuals have shown this could possibly be the case. I reject all spiritual explanations as reasons one is transgender, because there has been zero evidence for anything spiritual anyway, in the course of all human history. It makes very little sense then, to attribute something like being transgender to that when there are good SCIENTIFIC theories for why transgender people exist.
Regarding beliefs, I must say that there is much evidence pointing toward the possibility of reincarnation. One researcher did a study of children who remember past lives, and the cases sound pretty legitimate. There were hundreds of sex changes from one life to the next, and this could suggest why some people are transgender. Wanting to change gender seems to defy clear reasoning. Why would someone choose to make life more difficult by having to transition? I'm transitioning, and it's hard, and I don't even know exactly why. But the possibility of reincarnation and multiple lives could explain things. Again, this is just a belief with evidence. It's like a theory, except it can't be refuted.
^ Saying something "can't be refuted" already closes up conversation. Honestly, I could give you a ton of reasons why reincarnation is probably not true, but so could a google search, and since EC isn't a place for me to bother religious people, you're better off doing that google search yourself. XD I'm pretty sure "The Friendly Atheist" discussed reincarnation before- He made some excellent points.
