The materialistic magicians of the transgender

The materialistic magician is back, sporting a favorite pronoun name tag and waving an LGBTQ pride flag. CS Lewis’ cunning fictional demon Screwtape coined the term, and today’s transgender dogma is a clear manifestation of the incoherent combination of wishful thinking and materialism. Materialistic magicians are a danger to all of us.

The doctrine of transgenderism asserts that we each have an innate gender identity that is distinct from and may not correspond to our body sex. This mystical claim – that we have some kind of immaterial gendered self that can be born in the wrong body – is presumed but never explained or argued.

A recent Vox article offers an example. Written by transgender activist Emily St. James, it is an aggressive defense of children in medical transition that implores readers to “stop worrying about what happens if we let children transition. Worry about what will happen if we don’t. Writing about puberty, the author states that “for a trans person, the changes dictated by the body they were born into can be incredibly painful, unsettling, even fatal.” The presumption is that our true self is a gendered but immaterial entity that can somehow end up in the wrong body, and that in such cases the natural and healthy processes of physical maturation are the enemy. of the self.

This bold spiritual assertion is not recognized as such by its adherents. The body/soul dualism of transgender doctrine is far beyond the bounds of what science can determine, and it conflicts with the teachings of most religions and philosophical systems – it is certainly not compatible with Christianity. Nevertheless, its adherents assume that people have something like a gendered soul, and ignore the massive theological and philosophical work needed to support this essentially religious claim – it is the faith that dares to recognize itself as such.

For example, the Vox article opens with an anecdote about a young man upset by puberty: “When Mae Sallean was a teenager, her body and her mind began to drift apart. Her body and face began to grow thick hair, her voice dropped, and she felt disassociated from her physical form. This framing of mind against body persists throughout the piece, but the mind part remains mysterious. The article comes closest to the problem by complaining about a world that “cannot conceive of a self that does not begin with the body”, but the nature of this incorporeal self is never explained.

The presumption is that our true self is a gendered but immaterial entity that can somehow end up in the wrong body.

We are simply told to accept that such a self exists, that it has a gender identity that can diverge from body sex, that this mismatch is knowable even to children, and that it should be resolved through body modification. drastic and irreversible. These are not scientific claims, rather they are spiritual claims that must be taken on faith. The author doesn’t even try to argue that transgender identities stem from having a “girl’s brain in a boy’s body” or vice versa – a claim that has been made by some trans activists like Jazz Jennings, but for which there is no proof.

Rather than defend their mystical claims about the true nature of the self, trans activists and their allies attempt to support their beliefs by demonstrating that transition leads to human happiness. That’s why so much effort goes into manufacturing evidence that transitioning reduces suicide and generally improves patient well-being – philosophers can worry about the nature of gendered souls if they choose, but science can show that transition helps, regardless of spirituality. details.

But as Jesse Singal noted, there is a plethora of problems with the evidence cited by the Vox article. And in general, research used supporting the medical transition is weak at best, and junk science at worst. It is horrifying that doctors are sterilizing children and amputating healthy body parts based on this shoddy research.

Moreover, the Vox article itself inadvertently reveals that the push for transitioning kids is driven by disgruntled adults who blame their misery for not transitioning sooner. The author refers to “many trans people, who despair at having been prevented from transitioning as young people” and later cites a survey of “trans women at all stages of life who have not made the transition as young people. The picture… of these middle-aged and old-aged women is deeply sad.

Yes, but the problem is not that these men transitioned too late, but that they are living a lie by pretending to be women. Instead of doubling down on pushing kids to transition, we should back off, acknowledging that the dogmas of transgender materialistic magicians are neither real science nor real religion. They are simply not true.