Belivers in a soul. Do souls have gender, or are all souls alike?

I think souls will have no gender. I also don’t think you will know a young soul from an old soul, all will be the same. Just my opinion, I don’t have a reason as to why I think that way.

I think all souls are part of a whole when I imagine them, some get a little more of particular characteristics and some a little less. So I imagine a soul may tend to be male or tend to be female, but it isn’t a rule.

I think gender is physically based? Whereas souls are not. (As in Property Dualism).

“Souls” would be formless, non-gender energy, pure and simple.
We would be communing on a non-physical/gender level. Pure love, pure light, no form to get in the way, no base instinctual desires, no face, no words, no ego evaluating.

^wish I’d said that.

@chyna Just go look into your pups eyes, there you have it. :-)

@ETpro Psst – “believers”

I believe in souls but I don’t know if we have a male or female or if it is genderless. Sometimes I believe it is genderless, since we can dream about ourselves without gender. At least I do sometimes. But I don’t think anyone can really answer that question. It would be like asking people what does God look like.

The standard New Testament viewpoint is found in very similar verses in both Matthew and Mark where it states that in the resurrection of the dead they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like the angels in heaven.

So, this would tend toward an interpretation favoring a non gender specific expression of the soul/spirit. But the overly cryptic comparison to the angels really doesn’t add a whole lot of more specific info since there isn’t a plethora of information in the Bible about exactly what is entailed in being an angel.

Regarding transgender issues, I personallly think that standard Christian theology doesn’t have much to offer.

The viewpoint of Eastern religions regarding reincarnation (of people specifically, not animals) makes more sense to me regarding gender issues in our earthly life.

If there is the presumption that our soul has experienced other lives in other bodies and some of those experiences leave a deeper longer lasting impression than others, then it makes more sense that someone’s soul currently in a male or female body in this incarnation has such a deep attachment to it’s experience as the opposite gender that they just can’t be free from it. Thus, the confusion caused by firmly feeling they belong in a body different from the gender of their body at birth.

Obviously there’s no way to prove that, but to me it makes about as much sense as any other theories proposed as to why some people are so adamant about being a gender different from their physical body that it makes more sense to use surgery to conform the body to the mind, rather than the mind to the body.

What @Shippy mentioned about gender being physically based makes sense in this context. So, when a soul is Earthbound, gender is a necessary part of that soul’s expression. But when the soul is freed from am earthly incarnation, gender ceases to be since it’s no longer necessary on a higher plane.

What would the point of engendered souls be?
I believe souls have no sexual identity.

I acknowledge the existence of, and have witnessed, all kinds of genders, including non-binary. They are not based on anything physical, as is evidenced by my existence.
I don’t believe in indestructible, essential souls, although it is often very tempting to do so.

@Buttonstc: Why is it necessary to have a theory explaining why certain people are transsexual? The problem is with gendering anatomy to begin with, not with the people who don’t fit into the holy system of conflating reproductive anatomy, gender, and sexual practice.

@bookish1

I’m not necessarily saying it’s necessary for me personally because gender is not that important a part of how I relate to people.

But as much as I wish it could me that way for everybody, the plain fact remains that it isn’t.

So people have developed all kinds of theories to try to make sense of their extreme discomfort with transgender and other atypical people. So this is just one of many theories as to the why.

I have several transgender friends both pre and post op (or even no op) and I relate to them as people just like anybody else. But their lives have certainly been far from easy and the types of irrational prejudice and outright vitriol they’ve had to face troubles ms. So it’s a subject I’ve given some thought to.

I agree that our society would be better off without all the negative attitudes surrounding gender expression. But if seeing things through a spiritual lens would help put others more at ease, then why not.

I’m not saying that you or anyone else has to accept my theory. It’s just one among many and the original Q included it in the discussion parameters.

Besides, the question was addressed to Dualists. If you’re viewpoint doesn’t allow for that then I don’t see how anything you’re saying adds to the discussion at hand.

Again, I’m not saying that you have to see things in a spiritual context. If you prefer to deal with the material realm only, that’s your prerogative. I’m not out to change your mind.

But the OP asked a question with fairly specific parameters. Why do you feel a need to piss on it with your negativity?

Nobodys looking to change your mind about your beliefs. They’re just comparing theirs with no judgements of ypu or anyone else implied nor intended.

Even though I don’t really believe in a soul as a separate entity that outlives the body, it’s as good a word as any for something essential, some quality of mind that is not only consciousness but humanness. So I use the term, and it has a nebulous sort of meaning for me.

In that conception, I don’t think a soul has gender any more than breath has gender. It’s all made of the same stuff, like the air, but what’s in you isn’t what’s in me, at least not at the same time. However, it also has no boundaries, just like the air, and what’s in you is all a part of the same thing as what’s in me.

That’s how I think of it. And as I’ve said before, it doesn’t bother me to believe in something I know isn’t true, as long as I know it isn’t true. The mistake isn’t in believing something fanciful. The mistake would be in thinking that my belief makes it true and that therefore you should also believe it’s true, or else you’re wrong.

@Jeruba

I very much like the last sentence in your post.

It sums up my viewpoint precisely.

First, please forgive my typos. I’m working with my wife’s Kindle Fire till Wednesday because both my workstation and laptop died within the last two weeks. Her dainty hands fit the virtual keyboard just fine, but I keep triping over fat-finger syndrome. I can assure you hands have gender.

Thanks to all who weighed in. I wondered how dualists felt about soul gender because it’s common for them to speak of apparitions of heavenly beings as having male or female form.

Angels truly aren’t much help. All of them that appeared in the Old Testament were men. In fact they were often mistaken for ordinary men. By the New Testament they had either dropped their average-Joe cover or morphed into terrifying beings that often left humans in fear and awe. But throughout, they are always addressed by male names. I suspect that may have had more to do with the profound mysogyny of the times than with gender in the spirit world though.

@ETpro

“it’s common for them to speak of heavenly beings as having male or female form”

Could you be a little more specific about precisely what is meant by “apparitions” and which of the “them” you’ve been listening to speaking about this subject.

I’ve never seen an apparition in my life and neither have I met anyone else who has. So I’m curious as to where they may be found :)

Mind you, I’m not doubting their existence necessarily, but I’m a rather “feet planted firmly on the ground” type, so I’m curious.

———————————————-

BTW: a little typing hint. You might try switching to the one index finger way since that should avoid fat fingers colliding on something as large as a kindle. (Im assuming your use of the virtual keyboard on the screen rather than an external add-on)

It may sound slow at first but that’s how I instinctively did it on my iPhone and you get quick really fast. Use your thumb at the bottom as an anchor allowing you to pivot in place rather than moving your whole hand over the keyboard.

This even works best for me still when I got my 7 inch tablet (similar to kindle size). I tried the two thumbs method but it was way too clumsy. I’m a really fast one finger pivoting typer, if I do say so myself.

Last things first. Yes, I’m using the virtual keyboard. You’re right, one finger is actually faster.

Google for visions of heaven. I don’t know anyone who claims to have seen heaven. But there are numerous accounts in writing. Many stem from near death experiences in modern medical peactice.

Oh, if you want to talk about heaven, that’s another matter. You can just look at Newsweek‘s cover article of last week. Or read this commentary on it.

Yes and no, to your question that is. If you’re being serious about this then maybe from my 15 years of research on the matter at hand I can attempt to give you a serious answer here, but I have to use my sister’s computer to do it because my computer is acting up since spilling beer on it, don’t drink and fluther. Technically I don’t believe in dualism but I do call myself one for sakes sake. Also, I don’t believe in anything anymore than the most sceptical physicalist, but rather I accept the evidence that our minds are likely more than a brain function. This is evidence which sceptics do not accept of course, but I and many others do.

No, I don’t believe souls have a gender, they are pure ‘spirit’ imo.

A human being is a lot of bits joined together, physical, psychological and spiritual. When they all work together harmoniously you have a person. The soul is the harmony.

@flutherother, so a person who is in a state of disharmony (mental or spiritual disturbance, culpability, extreme incapacity) is without a soul? or how does that work?

Everyone has a soul but some are more beautiful than others. The Elephant Man despite his terrible life and his physical afflictions seemed to have a beautiful delicate soul for example.

@flutherother, that’s not consistent with your previous statement. You seemed to be saying that the definition of a person is the harmonious working of physical, psychological, and spiritual components, and that harmony (the process of working harmoniously) equals soul. Nothing about beauty there. That was a functional description.

Are you saying, then, that they work harmoniously in all persons because all persons have a soul? so that some of those harmonies are beautiful and some of them are not? Just trying to understand your assertion here.

I think the harmony comes first and that’s what gives rise to the soul but the harmony might not be perfect and can contain discordant elements that are reflected in personality. I don’t think you need to be perfect to be a person.

@Jeruba Thanks for the amusing link to the Newsweek article. Sadly, much of the discourse here confirms why the article may be devoid of scientific merit, but a brilliant display of marketing.

The word soul comes from the Hebrew word Nephesh. It means the whole person. You are a soul. You don’t have one.

@JenniferP Well bless my soul, I didn’t know that. Oops… I mean bless my whole person.