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If someone wants to take a discussion in a different direction--as frequently happens here--that's their prerogative. But to reply to someone's reply without addressing a single point that was brought up is simply rude.

I apologise for my rudeness - I didn't want to take this discussion into any direction. Alex

"If such "mistakes of the nature" are occurring ( and they are not that rare) - that is a proof that gender is just a lowly characteristic of our earthly body, which will not persist upon change of our bodies to spiritual bodies."

Mistakes are rare enough that they're cannot be understood as being "normal" and "intended" by "Nature" or its Author. Defects will be remedied in the General Resurrection.

Alex,

My apologies. The comments were intended for Vox Populi.

Dear Epiphanius,

That's OK - to apologise, even when we're not at fault, is good for our humility!

Alex

They are not rare - 5% of the population is NOT rare.
So what did the "nature" intend a true hermaphrodite to be?
Saying "defects will be remedied" without actually telling HOW ARE THEY GOING TO BE REMEDIED ( the only way is to actually abolish gender altogether - that is going to be FAIR remedy)is a deflection, not an answer.

self-imposed manners police much?

Actually, we can say "defects will be remedied" because God is all-good and we trust in Him to make things right. As far as *what* that remedy will be is not a matter of revelation and can therefore only be a matter of speculation.

Therefore, when you say "the only way is to actually abolish gender altogether," you are actually making that judgment on God's behalf.

Now, when you say "that is going to be FAIR remedy," you are actually correct--that certainly would be an equitable solution. However, please recall the parable of the laborers in the vineyard--God does NOT always do what we assume will be equitable!


Peace,
Deacon Richard

1. Now matter what word you want to use to describe the incidence rate, 5% is low enough that one knows that this is not normal development.

2. Nature (or God) intends each individual to have a specific sex. Defects are the result of problems in the makeup of an organism or something in development going awry. Science has advanced to the point that we know what is the problem for most, if not all.

The autism rate is estimated by some to be 2%. Major physical deformations, one source says 3%. Then there is blindness or deafness. So what is "fair" for each of these cases? That no one have a perfect body in heaven, but rather, that they have abnormal bodies in one way or in all respects?

Your arguments could be applied to any 'birth defect' but you are hung up on this one issue for some reason.

Such physical defects are evil (physical, not moral), but tolerated by God as consequences of the sin and fall of Adam.

Nobody is disputing that.

We have a lot of physical defects in our earthly life - clogged coronaries, ruptured aneurysms, fat bodies, malfunctioning livers or double sets of gonads.

Which does not mean we will have all of those in our changed bodies - and neither will we NEED them.

And as we won't need coronaries or livers absolutely in the same way we won't need sex organs( or gonads) - so we won't have them

No, not necessarily - I am repeating God's words that we will be like Angels and we won't be marrying in heaven - and absence of gender is a direct logical conclusion from that.

If you state that you THINK gender is preserved there - therefore my question - which gender will the hermaphrodites be assigned ( or all others with problems I've mentioned - where the internal perception differ from external presentation and so on) - and what basis for that assignment will be.

If one assumes no gender differentiation in heaven - that takes the question away altogether.

P.S. And of course, these issues are results of speculations - both on your and mine part. Or anybody else.
I just seem to have more logical postulates for my conclusions.

^ Isn't having an argument about what is, at best, idle speculation a distraction from our getting to paradise in the first place? Really, is the answer, if there is an answer available to us, to the underlying question really of any import in the here and now?

Sex identity is not determined solely by the organs that are present - one should also consider it at the genetic or cellular level, and so on. God can sort it out, even if you can't.

You can think of it as a rebuilding from the cellular level up, though the resurrection of the body may be instantaneous, rather than occuring through some sort of process. What should have resulted from fertilization and development, in the absence of p physical evil, will be restored and elevated.