Gender Theory: A Destructive Anthropology – Part II

The second part of Mr Galindo's essay on the false and destructive philosophical anthropology of the insanity of so-called 'gender theory'.

From Catholic Stand

By Antonio Galindo

[Read Part I]

The ever-increasing speed of technological and scientific development has significantly influenced our way of thinking, and we have come to a point in which we only believe in scientific truths that are achievable by empirical verification. As a consequence of this, we have fallen into a materialistic view of man which denies his spiritual reality and thus reduces man to a mere material being, as is the case with Gender Theory. Hence, we need to prove that man is not only a material being but a compositum of body and soul.

1. Man is composed of body and soul

Every physical being is a union of protomatter and natural form. Matter is that out of which something is made, and form is that by which something has being. This teaching of the union of form and matter is not new; it comes from Aristotle in the 4th century BC.

Furthermore, among physical beings we can distinguish between animate and inanimate beings because the form of each is different. Since our subject is human nature, we shall only focus on the form and matter of animate physical beings.

The form of those who are animate (plants, animals, and human beings) is the soul, which is the principle of their existence. The adjective “animate” is very important because it refers to the anima, the soul. Anima is a very powerful word because in English we could relate it to the verb “to animate” which means to put something into motion, meaning, to bring something to life. Living things are living because they have in their nature a principle of motion, which we call the soul. This is why Saint Thomas Aquinas defines the soul as “the first principle of life of those things which live” (Summa, I.75).

Among souls we find three degrees: the nutritive soul (plants), the sensitive soul (animals), and the rational soul (human beings). Of these three kind of souls, the rational soul is the most perfect because of its capacity for cognitive activities like the power of intellect and will. These powers are unique in human souls, and this is what makes us superior to all other animals.

Through the soul, the material body comes into existence because the form “informs and actualizes protomatter and also animates or ensouls the bodies” (Wallace, Modeling of Nature, 158-59). Our bodies exist and receive their identities from our souls. Thus, man is an ontic union of two co-principles which are matter and form.

This union of soul and body is such that “through the soul, the body receives and possesses subsistence and life, and from the union of these two principles results a single substance” (Elementary Course of Christian Philosophy, 315) which is a human being.  This union is such that when the soul leaves the body, the body corrupts to the point that it ceases to exist. Furthermore, the human body is human only through the soul, for it is the soul that determines that the body is human and not vice versa.

Our form (soul) manifests itself only in two physical modes of being, which is either male or female bodies. This is an empirical truth because “the human body bears within it the signs of sex and is male or female by its nature.” (Theology of the Body, 22).This means that our sexual identity is given by our souls and “manifests itself in two different ‘incarnations’, that is, in two ways of ‘being a body’” (Ibid.).

In other words, our body is gendered because our soul is gendered (because the body receives its gender from the soul), and the soul can be called male or female soul because it expresses itself in the body as male or female. These two ways of being a body clearly differ from each other, and this sexual dimorphism is scientifically verifiable. For example, the male body is composed of XY chromosomes, and female cells have XX chromosomes, and this constitution is given from the moment of conception.

While male and female humans share the same nature and dignity, their souls carry a different configuration that determines the shape of the body according to the particular powers of their soul. The soul arranges the body in a way through which it can make use of all its powers through the concrete material body. This is why gender is linked essentially to our form, and its physical expression cannot be changed according to our feelings. This is human nature – it cannot be changed.

Our sexuality is a fundamental component of our personhood, and the body is the physicality of human existence. Sexuality is not just a matter of feelings, it also encompasses our biological body, our psychological, affective, social, and spiritual elements.

This intrinsic union between body and soul (matter and form) gives us our identity as a whole. The attempt to present our bodies just as a possession of ours and not as part of our nature gives us a wrong understanding of human nature. Having a wrong understanding of human nature makes a lie out of our personhood and is an impediment to achieving of happiness because we can only achieve our last end if we have a true understanding of our nature.

2. Visible powers of the soul

The body is necessary for the action of the intellect because, through it, the soul manifest its powers. Man has always been amazed at his superiority over the rest of creatures. This superiority comes from the fact that humans are the only beings in the world who are endowed with the power of reason.

The soul is evident in the fact that we receive knowledge of the sensible world through the intellect. This knowledge is not just a sensible certainty but an abstract knowledge that allows man to create concepts. Concepts are abstract (immaterial) because in them we cannot distinguish physical parts. They transcend sensible reality through a process of abstraction.

From this process of the creation of concepts, man is able to create such things as art and language and arrive at eternal concepts such as truth, beauty, goodness and unity, which are universal concepts that go beyond the material world. In other words, we can know the essence of things, what they are.

In a way, we have access to them through our intellects without destroying them or changing them. We possess them in an immaterial way in our intellects, independently of space and time. St. Thomas Aquinas says that since the actions of the intellect are spiritual actions, we can conclude that in man there is “a principle both incorporeal and subsistent” (Summa, I.75.2), which is the soul.

3. The incorruptibility of the soul and man’s last end

A human being is a material thing inasmuch as material things are composed of form and matter, but we have proved that the form of man is the spiritual soul. This also proves the soul’s immortality, since the spiritual, lacking extensive parts in space, cannot decompose itself as is the case with matter.

For instance, when we expose our intellects to extreme objects or experiences, the intellect does not corrupt as in the case of our sensitive faculties. For example, if we expose one of our senses, let us say hearing, to an extreme object such as a strong noise, for a long period of time, our ears will get corrupted even to the point of losing the power of hearing. This would happen to any of our senses; when they are exposed to extreme objects, they break. This is so because the senses are an interaction between matter and form through which we come to know the physical world.

The problem is that the development of our senses is limited by the fact that they depend on matter. This does not happen to our intellect because understanding is an immaterial act and is not limited by matter. For instance, when we expose our intellect to extreme intellectual objects, such as eternal truths, our intellect is not damaged; on the contrary, it is perfected, and it will then understand lower things better.

Our intellect has an infinite capacity which allows man to know eternal truths. This shows us that our souls are immortal. Even after the soul leaves the body, it still subsists without the body. The existence of a spiritual reality in man can help us to consider that our last end must be a spiritual end because spiritual things are more perfect than material ones.

One of the powers of the soul is the will, and the object of the will is always the good. Then, the last end of man must be the highest good. But what is this highest good?

Every human being desires the good, because goodness perfect us. This desire for the good comes from the fact that we all desire our own perfection and try to achieve this perfection through different goods.

Looking at our experience of reality, we find that there is a gradation of goodness in things. There are things that are more or less good than others. As Thomas Aquinas says, the terms “’more’ and ‘less’ are predicated of different things, according as they resemble in their different ways something which is the maximum” (Summa, I.75.3). This means that we can judge whether something possesses more goodness than something else because it resembles that which is the best.

If so, there must be a good that possesses all goods and from which all goodness flows. Furthermore, this highest good must necessarily be spiritual because human nature, endowed with the power of rationality, is essentially spiritual. Thus, we can conclude that the last end of man must be the possession of the highest good (which St. Thomas terms the Summum Bonum).

This Summum Bonum which possesses all goodness we give the name of God. God is pure spirit, and from Him all goodness flows. Our happiness also depends on Him because God is “the perfect good that completely satisfies desire” (Catholic Encyclopedia, On Happiness).

Only God can satisfy all our desires because happiness is His essence, meaning that He is in a perfect state in which He does not need anything else but Himself. We will only be happy when we are united to the supreme good because then we shall be perfected. As Thomas Aquinas points out: “The ultimate perfection of a thing consists in its being united to its principle” (Summa, Suppl., 92), and the principle of our existence is God, and thus God is the only one who can make us happy.

This possession of God is what Thomas Aquinas called the beatific vision, where our intellects will enjoy the eternal vision of the Divine essence which will perfect our souls making them perfectly happy. This beatific vision consist in the “supremely personal act by which the soul, transcending absolutely every sort of created common good, enters into the very bliss of God, and draws its life from uncreated Good, the divine essence itself, the uncreated common Good” (Maritain, The Person and the Common Good, 21).

Conclusion

I have proposed in this essay that human nature is a compositum of body and soul showing that the union between soul (form) and body (matter) is indivisible and that both of them contribute to the sexual identity of man. This nature has been given to us by God, the source of all goodness, and we must respect it, accepting that we cannot manipulate it at will, because this manipulation will prevent us to flourish, to truly perfect ourselves.

This right understanding of human nature can lead us to happiness because “the unity of our spiritual and biological inclinations and of all the other specific characteristics are necessary for the pursuit of his end” (John Paul II, General Audience, 4/8/81). This last end can only be obtained by the eternal possession of God who is the source of all good and perfections.

Gender Theory presents a different understanding of man that is an impediment to achieve happiness. Because of that, it should be banned from our societies since the main goal of any society or institution is to facilitate the way for man to achieve his last end, removing from the way any obstacle that does not allow humanity to easily archive happiness. One of those obstacles is Gender Theory.