American Atheists issues a statement rebuking…heresy.
In response to Richard Dawkins’ recent tweet regarding trans people, Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, a trans woman, released the following statement:
So American Atheists don’t believe in a god but they do believe in a magical changeable “gender” that means men become women by saying so, and that no one is allowed to believe that’s nonsensical.
The progress of science has helped us better understand who we are as trans people. As the American Psychological Association notes, “Many experts believe that biological factors such as genetic influences and prenatal hormone levels, early experiences, and experiences later in adolescence or adulthood may all contribute to the development of transgender identities.”
What are “identities”? Are they a solid and crisp enough concept to be scientifically investigated? Or are they just a fuzzy category about how people think of themselves?
I think neuroscience and psychology can investigate delusions…but “identities”?
We need science communicators like Richard Dawkins to put in the time to learn this information and then communicate it clearly and accurately to the public, not reinforce dangerous and harmful narratives put forward by the opponents of equality.
Who’s “we”?
And what are these “dangerous and harmful narratives put forward by the opponents of equality”? Notice that claiming to be the opposite sex is Science while saying that isn’t possible is “narratives.” The more important point is that dissenters from trans ideology are not opponents of equality. These shits really need to stop lying about what we think and what we say. It’s even in their own interest to stop, because insisting on telling the lies over and over just makes it look as if lies are all they have. You know? If they can’t make their case without lying that we hate them and hate equality, then what kind of case can it be? Besides empty?
Trans people are under constant attack across our country.
No they’re not.
Implying that our identities are somehow fraudulent and questioning whether we even exist dehumanizes us and helps justify this violence.
No it doesn’t.
Saying that humans can’t change sex is just making a dull factual statement. Brandishing the word “identities” to shore up the claims of being the other sex is just childish word magic. Nobody questions whether or not people who claim to be the other sex exist; we all know you exist, not least because you keep shouting about it.
It’s just hackery, this kind of thing. Stale phrases trotted out to justify fantasy-based ideas of “identity” – it’s silly, it’s childish, it’s beyond tedious.
Comments
12 responses to “And then communicate it clearly and accurately”
My brain read that in the gravely voice of the man who does the movie trailers.
Wait a second, I’m going to do it again….
Yeah, fairly satisfying.
latsot,
I trust you prefaced it with “In a world of…”.
Of course, when people who are told to ‘educate themselves’ do, they often find what the trans lobby doesn’t want them to find.
And even if their beliefs have to do with prenatal hormones, etc, that does not mean these ideas reflect reality. It just means they really, really have these ideas. And I suspect Dawkins has probably studied more science than the Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists.
AA was one of the first groups where I witnessed the total takeover by trans (possibly because of Danielle Muscato?). I attended a conference where much of the time was taken up by trans and gay advocates, and little by atheism.
Interesting. I was at the 2013 conference and I don’t think it was on the agenda at all. Muscato was definitely not “out” at that time.
It wasn’t quite that early. It was the one in Oklahoma City a few years ago. My husband and I both went because we used to live there, and we combined a trip back to see my family. My husband actually walked out at one point, because he is not on board with trans ideology at all.
Maybe it has, but science isn’t any closer to showing that trans are the sex they claim than it was a century ago. Explaining why trans people might have their beliefs about their sex is not the same as confirming those beliefs as facts. Further, taking scientific findings about conditions such as intersex or atypical chromosone combinations out of context to back up transgender claims is not science, it’s exploitation of people with conditions only tangentially related to transgender.
I was thinking about that latter part earlier after reading PZ’s hit-piece on Jerry Coyne for his lack of belief in sex as a spectrum, a piece in which PZ once again pulls out the intersex and chromosone argument to ‘prove’ that science supports the core belief of transgender religion, and the conclusion I reached was this:
By use of visual examinations, blood tests, testing chromosone combinations, and without requiring any input from the person being examined, doctors can diagnose whether a person is intersex, standard xx-female or xy-male, chromosonally atypical, and so-on. There is no scientific test that can detect whether a person is transgender: there is no way of diagnosing transgender independently of having that information supplied by the transgender person, ie. self-reporting/self-diagnosis. So, science clearly does not support claims that transgender people are the sex they claim for themselves. True, neuroscience and psychology can confirm that people can and do believe themselves to be the wrong gender for their bodies, but confirming that they believe something is not confirming any physical reality behind the beliefs.
The part I’ve bolded there is transgender heresy. I have seen so many TRAs insist that being transgender is something one is from birth, not something that can or is caused by anything that may have been experienced since birth. Of course they have to make that argument because to admit that being transgender can be influenced by life experiences would negate that core belief that they are born with a discrepancy between their bodies and their ‘actual’ sex.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2021/04/14/marinated-in-wokeness/
American Atheists?
Are they still around?
*shrug*
This distinction is not helped by the fact that the DSM bakes veridicality into its definition of gender dysphoria, along with notions of assigned gender, gender identity, and gender expression. So if you say that gender dysphoria is real, then you’re de facto affirming the whole metaphysical package.
I like that “bakes veridicality into” phrase. Very useful.
[…] a comment by Acolyte of Sagan on And then communicate it clearly and […]
Is there any core aspect of personality which isn’t based on biological factors and experiences? Not just being gay, but being an avid reader, good at math, afraid of dogs, preoccupied with looks, devoutly religious, and rationally atheist are all going to be some combination of nature and nurture. The claim that transgender people are BIOLOGICALLY TRANSGENDER is empty. It’s in the brain? So is every other bit of who we are and what we think.
And as Acolyte of Sagan points out, believing you’re a psychic and being a psychic are not the same.
Haven’t you heard? There is essence.