Because of the ways of the world, and current trends in society, I have decided to share my views and beliefs on gender as an eternal characteristic. "Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World).
I believe that not only is gender an essential characteristic of our premortal lives as spirits, but also as intelligences. Intelligences were not created or made, nor can be (Doctrine and Covenants 93:29), like matter itself (Doctrine and Covenants 93:33). Not only are our spirits and bodies male or female, but the core of who we are, our little "I am" inside. For more information on intelligences you can read my Glory of God is Intelligence post.
What if intelligence, or the light of truth had gender, male and female? Or rather, masculine and feminine. Polarized attractions towards opposites, and repelling force towards those similar. That is right, I believe that positive and negative attraction are routed in genders.
From the scientific standpoint, the smallest particle, that I am aware of, is quarks. Each quark has a positive or negative charge, or technically a +2/3 for Up quarks and a -1/3 for Down quarks, and group up in threes. Two positives and a negative make a proton, two negatives and a positive make a neutron. If I understand correctly, electrons are unknown, but mathematically they are likely comprised of three Down quarks.
There are other types of quarks, including: Charm, Top, Strange, Bottom. Yet these types are not found in the world around us and are only created from high energy collisions and then they decay quickly back into Up or Down quarks. Thus they are irrelevant to this discussion.
These three particles (three quarks) make up atoms with protons and neutrons in a nucleus, and the electrons orbiting the shells. Protons having a +1 charge, neutrons charge of 0, and electrons with a -1 charge. Thus, though the neutron appears to have what could be considered "non gender" polarity, it is still made up of particles that do have polarity.
I am going to skip over how and why atoms and molecules interact because of these polarities and move on to body comparisons.
1 Corinthians 15:44 "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." Doctrine and Covenants 77:2 A clarifies "...that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal;" or physical "and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual; the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created."
So, if the physical manifestation includes cells, molecules, atoms, and quarks, then why not our spirit bodies as well. "All spirit is matter..." (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7). Thus it is likely built after the same manner. If spirit and element are both matter then when Brigham Young said, "And matter is capacitated to receive intelligence." (Journal of Discourses 7:2), it means that not only are our little "I am"s intelligences that inhabits matter, but potentially every single particle that comprises our physical and spiritual bodies likely has an intelligence attached.
Science has yet to explain why quarks have polarities, thus my hypothesis is that a masculine or a feminine intelligence is bonded with that particle giving it polarity. Thus, our entire bodies are comprised of masculine and feminine particles. My diagram above could look more like this.
Now, that same quote from Brigham Young said that matter can "receive intelligence". This could mean that not all matter has intelligence, and would likely be matter unorganized. Yet it also could mean that there are intelligences out there that do not inhabit matter. Doctrine and Covenants 130:19 says that we can grow in intelligence. Thus we might be able to receive more of these intelligences, the ones that are not bonded to matter.
If each of these new intelligences have "gender" then our own personal "I am" being "male" or "female" could potentially be surrounded by influences of the other intelligences within us. Thus possibly explaining why some people might fell like they are a woman trapped in a man's body, or a man trapped in a woman's body. This is not the case, for God would not permit a mistake of that eternal magnitude or significance, yet it would explain those feelings.
I have a friend who explained to me that he felt like he was born homosexual because he was born more feminine. As far as I know, it has been proven that some children are born more feminine or masculine than others. This brings up the main "hiccup" of being born in mortality. This is a fallen world, thus elements, chemicals, and our bodies are subject to decay, mutation, and sickness. Someone might be born more feminine or masculine due to abnormal amounts of testosterone or estrogen. That can come to pass for a variety of reasons, but does that necessarily have a bearing on sexual orientation?
It might actually, not saying it does, but it is a valid possibility. If masculine is attracted to feminine and vise versa, then someone with abnormal hormones could find themselves more attracted to someone of the same gender. Now, both men and women naturally have both hormones within them. Thus everyone could potentially be tempted with a homosexual relationship. 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:..." We all have temptations that beset us because of the "natural man" (Mosiah 3:19). Some of these temptations might be more powerful because of genetics and our bodies, like those who have a genetic disposition towards alcohol or depression. I suffer from depression myself, and I am a firm believer of not judging someone , like the bumper sticker says, because they "sin differently than [me]". Yet, in myself and in others, giving in does not mean that it is not a sin, just it is an understandable sin.
What I mean by "understandable sin" is that it makes logical sense why someone would give in to that sin. Understanding a sin does not excuse giving in to temptation but does help someone resist it. Corinthians adds "...but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." We might be more tempted in particular areas than other people, but because we are more tempted, we can understand why and then "escape" it and "bear it" better. To the point that we can help others be strong in the face of temptation.
Feminine and masculine tenancies can also be taught or nurtured, like growing in intelligence. Environment has some valid bearing upon how masculine or feminine we are. Like a girl that is a "Tom Boy" raised on a farm, she has masculine attributes that were taught her from her family and life experiences, as well as characteristics that she nurtured within herself because they helped her "survive". Does this make her any less of a woman? No. Does being more feminine make a man any less of a man? No.
Now, here comes a mystery of God that has not yet been completely revealed to me. Because of this fallen world and genetic reproduction abnormalities, there are people who are hermaphrodites, having both male and female genitals. Though their physical bodies are what some might consider "neutral" like neutrons in atoms are considered, their spirit and "I am" have a distinctive male or female gender.
I have tried to find a way to determine which attributes would reveal which gender they truly are, yet I am left confounded from my attempts. In my biology class, I learned that as a scientific determination, the presence of the Y chromosome means that they are considered male. This seemed a fairly satisfactory answer to me. Yet, God has given the procreative powers of pregnancy to human women. There are hermaphrodites who have the Y chromosome, have sterile sperm, and are able to become pregnant.
As I said, I do not believe that God would permit such mistakes as placing a man in a woman's body, or a woman in a man's body. This leads me to think that reproduction is the key. If the eggs are viable, then the individual is female. If the sperm is viable, the individual is male. Otherwise, a male human spirit inside of a body that can give birth would be the equivalent of a man being born in a woman's body. Thus, if reproduction is the determining factor, it would be a case by case basis rather than something plain and straight forward. As far as I know, there has never been a human born that has both viable sperm and eggs.
What does that mean for other organisms that reproduce asexually? or what does it mean for seahorses which have males giving birth? I "haven't the foggiest" answer. Alas, I can speculate all I want about hermaphrodites, but I really have no definitive answer.
Arthur Weasley: "Haven't the foggiest."
If you have insights or information that I might not have concerning this matter, please comment or contact me. I am not afraid to learn new knowledge or gain a new perspective on this matter. I do hope that this post has been insightful.
Love,
Jacobugoth
No comments:
Post a Comment