Gender

[Angrboda]

Personally I subscribe to a self-id model of gender.

In nearly every field I know of, the majority of atheists on the Internet have strict standards if they're going to believe that something is true. 

We want objective, empirical evidence, which can be verified by independent observers. For years, I've been hearing that this is the only way we can have confidence in truth claims.

Now we have this one quite important exception to what had previously seemed like a rule. Self-ID of gender is not something that empirical science can objectively verify. In fact all the markers previously used for this purpose -- chromosomes, etc. -- are declared to be irrelevant. 

I think it's fascinating that the rule of empirical objectivity has exceptions. Obviously, if someone here said, "I am sure that God is all around me because it is self-evident to my experience as a human," none of the regular posters here would take that as the least bit persuasive as evidence. But "I am sure I am not the same gender I was assigned at birth because it is self-evident to my experience as a human" is something we now accept without question. 

It makes me wonder what other exceptions there may be, and what other things we will learn to accept without objective evidence. It may turn out that your sympathies for nihilism are correct, and objective evidence may not hold the weight that it once did.

Do you think that most atheists dismiss the notion of clinical depression?