RE: Christian trigger words
January 3, 2019 at 1:35 am
(This post was last modified: January 3, 2019 at 1:38 am by Nihilist Virus.)
(January 2, 2019 at 10:49 pm)Natachan Wrote: While I do think what you just posted is hilarious I’m concerned that it might give ammo to people who dismiss gender non-conforming people or who embrace gender essentialism. I also think it’s a false equivalence to compare these things.
I was comparing them because Christians notoriously have a hard time understanding simple points (or they pretend to not understand). So I wanted to acquaint them with something they understand first. Also I'm entirely factual so it it was ultimately a serious thread.
(January 2, 2019 at 10:55 pm)Belaqua Wrote:(January 2, 2019 at 10:40 pm)Nihilist Virus Wrote: Firstly, let's establish that every Christian believes they have a soul. The soul, in fact, is their actual being. A Christian's body is just a vehicle and the soul is the driver.
But what is a soul?
A soul is a transdimensional, immortal, non-physical entity which will be placed into a new body on a "new earth."
Thomas Aquinas, who was a Christian, defined the soul as the form of the body.
Following Aristotle, he said that every material object has both matter (hyle) and form (morphe).
Form, in this view, is more than just shape. It includes the workings of a particular thing. So the form of the human body includes the ability to do the things that bodies do -- breath, eat, etc. A human body which couldn't do these things would in some way lack its proper form.
Christians who follow Aquinas posit that this form is an intrinsic part of who we are. The only supernatural thing they claim about the soul is that it can be transferred after death to a different type of matter. But the form that you are, plus the matter which the form forms, is what you are.
Therefore, the idea that a man's soul is detachable and can be transferred into a woman's body at will, or vice versa, would go against what a person's true form is. They define violence as that which opposes the flourishing of the form one has, in an effort to make it do something against that flourishing. According to them, if you are born with the form of a man, it is doing violence to yourself to attempt to change that form into something else.
There are a lot of arguments why people should be able to be trans if they want. As far as I personally am concerned, I think it's up to them.
But if we want to attack the Christian position we should attack the real position they have. I suspect that the definition you give here, and the obvious problems it presents, would not be relevant to, say, the Pope, who knows what Aquinas wrote as the official dogma of the church.
Interesting. Thanks. But Christiity is not about facts. It's about authority. Aquinas had a lot of pull, but not nearly as much as Paul. I quote Paul to make my points.
(January 2, 2019 at 11:05 pm)Shell B Wrote: It's never good to make a point with censorship.
You must not talk to Christians much.
Jesus is like Pinocchio. He's the bastard son of a carpenter. And a liar. And he wishes he was real.