The Bible says nothing about transgender people.

Post Reply New Topic

That's because people didn't think of that as an option back when the ancient politicians were writing the bible. But if it was, they would have written it in and attributed it to their god.

There’s a lot of problematic stuff in the Old Testament as far as women are concerned too, but much of it is outlined in this thread.

It also should be noted that several of the books that are commonly attributed to Paul weren’t actually written by him.

https://www.bartehrman.com/what-books-d ... -epistles/


The books that contain the cringiest stuff in the New Testament regarding women were falsely attributed to Paul.

The following scripture was written by Paul. Some could use it to discourage surgery, especially if they combine it with other scriptures.

1 Corinthians 12:18 “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”

Totally agree. I'm going by memory, but of the ones you mentioned I think (emphasis on "think") Timothy would be the only one in question (and obviously not Leviticus). But your point is taken.

Also, regarding the old testament... agree, and I hate it. I cannot say there is a damn thing about the old testament I care for hanging on to.

The ultimate point being: we shouldn't look to this book(s) for morality, or scientific knowledge, or even historic knowledge.

A secondary point on the new testament: Jesus spent soooooooooo much more time railing against the rich, and telling us to look out for the less forrunate. Why? We have these charlatans trying to twist this damn book every which way, so long as they ignore the main character's biggest message. I don't know... I worked myself up, and I'll leave it there.

Some people have already made up their minds regarding what is moral or immoral, and what is right or wrong.

THEN they go to the Bible (mostly the Old Testament) to justify their already-determined beliefs.

AND THEN, they claim to be "Christians" so that they can claim their lies, abuses, and violence against others are either justified, forgiven, "G^D's will", or some combination thereof. They have either forgotten or ignored what Paul wrote to the Galatians.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." -- Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

I think the general drift of the Bible on sexuality is that it has to be "normal," i.e. one male and one female, each looking and acting like "their" assigned gender stereotype, having sex only within a sanctioned marriage, and doing nothing that messes with the usual consequences of animal sex (reproduction). So if you're transgender, that's deviating from the mainstream sexual path, and thus is not allowed by scripture.

For example, here's the take of one apparently devout follower of the Bible:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blog ... genderism/

----------------TANGENT WARNING-------------------------

I don't approve of such an ideology at all, but I'm interested in why scripture takes this hostile view of harmless behaviour. It seems to me highly unlikely that scripture is the written lawbook of an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing deity, so I take references to "God's will" in that book to mean the social rules in the place and time it was written. So the question becomes, why did they hate deviation from the stereotype sexual norm so much? How had those deviations ever harmed them? Of course as far as scripture itself is concerned it's just a matter of "because the Lord says so and he is always right." To the authoritarian mindset, that's all there is to it. So no answers there.

From other sources I gather that this hatred of sexual diversity is more common in relatively poor and undeveloped societies which for survival reasons have to enforce great social cohesion by insisting that everybody does things the same way. I suspect also that they needed all the kids they could produce so that they could expand and have lots of strong, young workers, caregivers, and warriors. Population increase wasn't so much of a threat as it may be now. Whatever the reason, it seems that there's more tolerance in modern, developed, wealthy societies that can afford to embrace more individual expression.

Though it's not that simple. Many people in such societies still haven't shaken off their old religious prejudices. The Church has done its work thoroughly. So even in the wealthy USA, we see old-fashioned perspectives fighting tooth and claw to preserve their ways from all this new-fangled libertarian, humanist, progressive, egalitarian heresy.

And there's also this "us and them" disdain and suspicion in the nature of many humans. Interestingly, according to the OT, that nation wasn't friends with any other AFAIK. The OT is about violent conquest justified on the back of its own experiences of enslavement and persecution. The NT isn't a lot better.

 

Not that anybody here gives a damn about what I think, but why do you guys love to hate on and bash Christians so much? To hear you people talk you would think that every Christian in this world is literally a Nazi.

I'm a homosexual neopagan myself and even I think that the internet takes this crap way too far.

Easy Targets / Low-Hanging Fruit.

All those "Thou Shalts" and "Thou Shalt Nots" they throw at us, many of which are not even in the Bible, and most of which they do not even follow themselves, make for one big, bright, flashing, neon sign that says, "Kick Me" wherever they go.

I guess people these days are too ignorant to realize why religion exists in the first place.

Because evangelical Christianity is a major source of problems in the US.

I’m not a fan of organized religion, but most people I’ve known are Christian. They aren’t Nazis, but most have had some degree of bigotry - mostly, centered on folks who are LGBTQ+.

I’ve experienced a lot of abuse and trauma due to stuff that’s in the Bible, so I’m fully aware of the harm it can cause. I’m also very familiar with it. It’s a special interest in a way. My brother is an atheist too, but the Bible would be the book he’d want if he was ever stranded on a deserted island. He wouldn’t read it for comfort but just because it interests him. He’s interested in textual criticism. My interest in the Bible doesn’t extend THAT far. I’d probably take Lord of the Rings.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 03 Apr 2024, 1:12 am, edited 2 times in total.

Scrutinizing something does not make one ignorant.

Many people realize why religion exists.

Who are you calling "ignorant"?

Religion exists solely to indoctrinate people into a mindset that complies with and conforms to the religious leaders' established concept of "morality", which itself can be constructed without involvement by religious authorities.  At least, that's what they taught me at Seminary.

It is also said that the first religion was founded when the first scoundrel met the first fool. (Attributed to many.)

Maybe you'd like to tell us, if you know? Me, I've seen a few plausible theories.

As for kicking Christians, I hope I've confined myself to intelligently and respectfully challenging some of their ideas. But I can understand the temptation in some cases. I don't mean you of course. I don't even know what your views on religion are.

Modern Christianity is a modern religion. They claim to be thousands of years old but their religion has changed so much over the last 50 years. Their religion in it's current form is younger than scientology. Younger than the McDonald's Happy Meal.


I've heard modern Christians tell stories about how Noah offered to let people onto the ark so they wouldn't drown. Yet they people laughed at him, until it was too late.

The Bible says that God instructed Noah to take exactly 8 people onto the ark. Himself, his wife, his 3 sons and their wives. The point of the flood was to kill everyone else, not too save everyone else who asked to come into the ark.

The fact that the Bible doesn't contain the story of Noah offering spots on the ark to people outside his immediate family doesn't concern modern Christians. After all, they have a modern religion.

Most of us dont do that.

Just a few vocal members.

But here is the thing.

Christianity was dying out slowly in most of the Industrialized world in the 20th century...except here in the US where it was still going strong.

Except the Christianity we have in the US isnt really Christianity...but a later day commercial parody of Christianity...just check out Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, and most televangelists.

But now even this American parody of Christianity is loosing its grip on the younger generation in this digital 21st century. So those that remain in the flock do desperate things like...build the Ark Experience theme park and make themselves LOOK laughable.

And now that we are in the Age of Trump we have the rise of "Christian Nationalism" in which "Christians" style THEMSELVES as being racist and...unchristian.