Is Biological Sex a Thing Anymore?

Political correctness (PC) started out simply being an attempt to change the language in ways that would avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. So we ended up with such terms as flight attendant rather than stewardess, or partner rather than girl or boyfriend. Well, that is so yesterday. Now we get to use it to actually distort reality.

Have you heard about Harvard lecturer Carole Hooven? Dr. Hooven earned her PhD in biological anthropology at Harvard in 2004, and is now a lecturer and co-director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at her alma mater. The focus of her work for the last 20 years has been “hormones and their relationship to human behavior.”

Now the fact that she is an anthropologist and works in the field of evolutionary biology probably means that when it comes to an understanding of the nature of man, I would not have a lot in common with her. She obviously holds a naturalistic worldview – which means that her perspective on the human species puts her in the camp of people who believe human beings are nothing more than naturally evolved animal creatures. That is a religious point of view and I believe it is a false religion. But it turns out that we do agree on one thing – biological sex is a real thing.

Political correctness these days has deemed that biology isn’t as important as how someone feels about their sex. These days, if a person is biologically one sex, but feels that they are the other, it is the feelings that take precedence. Dr. Hooven gave a television interview recently in which she asserted that there are, in fact, only two sexes – male and female. And she defended her position using science.

Well, it seems that her pronouncement didn’t sit well with Laura Simone Lewis. Lewis is the Director of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force at Harvard’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology – the unit that Dr. Hooven works in. On Twitter, Ms. Lewis uses the handle “Blewish feminist mermaid.” After hearing the above mentioned interview, she called Dr. Hooven’s defense of science “dangerous.” She stated, “I’m appalled and frustrated by the transphobic and harmful remarks made by a member of my dept in this interview ....” She went on to say, “I respect Carole as a colleague & scientist, but this dangerous language perpetuates a system of discrimination against non-cis people (people whose sense of personal identity and gender doesn’t correspond with their birth sex) within the med system. It directly opposes our Task Force work that aims to create a safe space for scholars of ALL gender identities and sexes.”

So there you have it – feelings trump reality. And if you decide to go with reality in areas where it is contrary to political correctness, you must be silenced, then publicly shamed as an example to any others who would defy the PC enforcers.

Well, I’m sorry. I’m simply not willing to go there. There is a way reality is actually structured, and anything that is contrary to that is simply not real – it is a fantasy.

It would be bad enough if topics like gender were the worst parts of this attempt to distort reality. But the truth is, the gender battle is simply one example of a much more extensive attempt to promote the distortion. It is the underlying naturalistic worldview belief system that is the root of it all.

It is interesting to note that Naturalism is the belief that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. With that, science should be the bottom line decider of reality for people who hold that view. But there is another element of Naturalism that provides another place for distortion to happen. Since Naturalists don’t believe in the possibility of any kind of transcendent reality (anything outside of the natural universe), there is no possibility that God exists  – and correspondingly, no such thing as objective moral beliefs. And if there are no objective moral beliefs, people get to make up their own morality. So if the ones who want to assert that there are more than two sexes get enough of a soap box, they might find themselves in a position for their relativistic moral beliefs to actually override even science.

And that is exactly what we see happening. It doesn’t make the unreal beliefs any less of a fantasy, but it does create a situation where people and institutions are forced to operate “as if” something is real when it actually isn’t. And when that becomes the dominant environment, you end up living in a fantasy world.

So what’s the remedy? What can Christians do to push back?

Well, the remedy for false beliefs is the truth. We have to shout back that “the emperor has no clothes.” A lie can only win when the truth keeps silent.

This principle is particularly important for Christians as Naturalism continues its ugly spread throughout society. Naturalists are promoting a world that doesn’t acknowledge the existence of God. We have to be willing to push back by not only proclaiming that God does exist, but do so in a way that shares who He is and how people can know Him. The only way to overcome a lie is with the truth. Do you know how to do that? Are you willing to take your stand?

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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