I’m stunned by the decision of the US Southern Baptist Church (16 million members!) at their annual convention to deny that transsexualism exists (see for example http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/southern-baptist-convention-approves-anti-transgender-resolution). Here is a quote: “The delegates affirmed that ‘God's design was the creation of two distinct and complementary sexes, male and female.’ and that ‘gender identity is determined by biological sex, not by one's self-perception.’” The resolution also opposes treatment for transsexuals.

Wow. I mean, I’m lost for words. How stupid, ignorant, arrogant and hateful can you be in this day and age? The facts are out there, for everybody to see... what about people with disorders of sex development that don’t fall neatly into the male or female categories? I guess they are living proof that god’s design is flawed? What if some components of the biological sex are male, and others female? I guess god screwed up big time, considering that about 1 % of humans are affected. Or maybe the Southern Baptist are too mad and too self-important to see what nature puts right in front of us.

Please, if you are a member of a church holding such views, leave your church. It’s the only decent thing to do. These churches want to deny treatment to suffering human beings, driving them into depression and suicide. I can’t believe it... is empathy such a difficult concept for some people? Pffff…

And, since I did my regular update yesterday, and I’m on religious news already, here is something that fascinates me: Dutch researchers Marjo Korpel and Johannes de Moor studied some Ugaritic cuneifom tablets and found... the story of the garden of Eden! 800 years older than the old testament of the bible, the story tells us about the first human and his wife, living in paradise until an evil god transformed the tree of life in a tree of death. They were thrown out of the garden and lost immortality as a result. The findings are detailed in a new book, “Adam, Eve and the Devil”.

Just like the story that became Noah’s flood (which can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh; 1400 years older than the old testament), this new find doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the originality and accuracy of biblical stories.