How do we handle the science of sex/gender

  • Thread starter Thread starter brianna
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

brianna

Guest
So I recently learned that science has actually shown that there are more than just two sexes mean there is more than XY and XX. So how do us Catholics deal with this discovery’s when it comes to the whole one male and one female because there are plenty of people out there with XYX or XXX and so on. The science of sex is much more complicated than just male and female boxes so how do we view it now?
 
The same way we handle the reality that some people are born with 1 arm, or some people are born with 11 fingers.

We don’t adjust the standard that humans have 2 arms and 10 fingers. Those who have more or less than that are an anomaly.

Females are born with 2 X chromosomes, males are born with 1 X and 1 Y chromosome. That is how we define sex. There are people born with other combinations of chromosomes, but it is an anomaly. One that is very rare.
 
Last edited:
Again science still shows that is not that simple. There people with multiple sex organs and even some who are born with none. Also the sex organs is not how science tell somethings sex but they use sex chromosomes. (XX XY) but is has been discovered that there are more than those two chromosomes. How do we pair this with theology of the body?
 
so then God did just make male and female? because those people with XYX or XXY are still people?
 
@brianna I’m not a theologian. I don’t know if God creates people this way, or if he permits these things to occur.

People with more than 2 sex chromosomes are still people, just like people with an extra 13th or 21st chromosome are still people.

The fact that they are still people does not disprove my initial post. Male sex is XY, female sex is XX. Anyone who doesn’t fit that has an anomaly with their sex chromosomes and that does not mean the definition of male and female needs to change.
 
Last edited:
Here I wanted too provide all the scientifically found sexes.
  • X
  • XX
  • XXY
  • XY
  • XYY
  • XXXY
    Out of all these sexes there could be millions of people with them not really an anomaly condescending that this is normal biology. i am not trying to say that we should change the definition of male and female no serous scientist would want that. I am just confused because I know many who say that God created only Male and Female and yet we have all these other sexes? Like what does this mean for the church and how it moves forward with the idea that sex is only binary because the science of the matter says is it is a spectrum between male and female.
 
Males are XY and females are XX.

In answer to the OP’s question: anyone with a Y chromosome (regardless of how many Xs) is a male…more specifically it’s a gene on the Y chromosome (which is really small in comparison to the X chromosome) that determines maleness. There are men born with male genitalia who have an XX karyotype but also have a small part of the Y chromosome attached to an X…very rare but goes to show that it’s that gene that determines male features.
 
Last edited:
There are two sexes.
Sometimes biological anomalies happen.
I mean with all our technology and information in our pockets we are now a society that doesn’t know male or female.
 
First off I am albino and do not appreciate being call a flaw of genetics. Also so of that logic you are saying that God just kinda messed up with their genetics and didn’t really want them to be like that. I don’t know about you but I don’t think God make flaws. There are mutations of course but that does not make them any a less valid part of natural biology. Because science does not considered people born with different chromosomal as an anomaly. Sex is not considered an mutation like mine. It so common an natural that is would be absurd to think that different sexes are just mutations.
 
brianna said:
It so common an natural that is would be absurd to think that different sexes are just mutations.
Click to expand...
The different sex chromosome combos don’t help to further the species…men who are XXY are often infertile; women who only have one X (Turner’s Syndrome) are infertile and often have other issues to deal with as well. The only ones that don’t’ pose a huge problem are XXX and XYY…but there are still issues associated with both those conditions. The more X chromosomes one has the more likely they will have intellectual and learning disabilities. Those are just facts. I know b/c my daughter has a microduplication on one of her X chromosomes…I’ve done research ad nauseum on the sex chromosomes.
 
Okay let try and better explain what I am saying.
Just because they are mutations does mean that God messed up somehow. The existence of the mutation itself proves that there are more than two sexes. The Church has always said that God created male and female (which is true) but does that mean that he ONLY created male and female because the mire existence of mutations support that idea that he made more that two because obviously he made those people.
 
brianna said:
You have to back up that statement.
Click to expand...
The OP made the positive claim that “science has actually shown that there are more than just two sexes”, and supported it by talking about genetic variation. But genetic variation is not sex.

Variations in the underlying genetics don’t change the fact that males have a penis and females have a vagina, and anyone who claims otherwise holds the burden of proof. Human beings have no third type of genitalia, and those few with ambiguous genitalia are not of a third sex.
 
Last edited:
there are 700,000,000 billion people on the planet. Out that there can conceivably be tens of millions of people with a genetic difference. My albino-ism is less prominent than a chromosome difference and there are a ton of us around.
 
Last edited:
You’re right…God didn’t mess up…all these things exist b/c of sin; ever since the Fall we have been at odds with Creation. There is only male and female…the Y chromosome determines if a person is male. XXY and XYY men are both males…the number of X chromosomes doesn’t matter.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top