Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Problems with Creating Your Identity When You Reject God

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

When a person rejects God, they’re left to determine for themselves their own identity. Alan unpacks some problems with this approach.

When someone rejects God, they have no external maker to tell them who they are. And so people often turn to their inner thoughts and inner feelings to discover their identity. Well, I want to explain the problems with this approach in this episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Schliemann. Baskin Robbins was my go-to place for ice cream when I was a kid. I remember at the time they boasted 31 flavors, right? And of course, with that many options, I was sure to find one flavor that would satisfy my craving. Now, though it makes sense to choose your favorite flavor of ice cream,

it seems strange to take this approach when figuring out whether you're a man or a woman. Now, not long ago, that aspect of who you were wasn't decided, but rather it was discovered, right? You were either born male or female, and you grew up to either be a man or a woman. That, of course, is not the case today, right? Planned Parenthood, who is mostly known for their abortion advocacy, recently posted pictures of over a dozen flags that they claim represent different gender identities within the LGBT community. Now, not to be outdone, Northwestern University has a program called the Thrive Program, and they created a graphic that names 40 gender identities. And they claim these options allow different members of the LGBT community to, quote unquote, or to, quote, feel seen, heard and celebrated, end quote.

Now, although many factors probably play a role, the emergence of these identities is not surprising. Right. Society has all but jettisoned belief in God. And so when you reject your maker, you reject the one who establishes your identity, right? And so people, of course, naturally want to belong, right? They want to crave to connect with the community of people who share their values and feelings. But with the maker gone, there's an identity vacuum that begs for a new way to view oneself. And so it makes sense that the concept of gender identity was born. And that's why there's a potentially endless offering of identities. So with no external maker to tell them who they are, people oftentimes will

then just look internally. And so often they'll tap into their inner thoughts and feelings in an attempt to create their own identity. And they're basing their identity on their internal experience, which is an approach that I believe is fraught with problems. And let me offer you three main problems with this approach of basing your identity on this sort of internal experience. Here's the first problem. on this sort of internal experience. Here's the first problem. It presumes that your inner thoughts are a reliable source for determining your identity. You see, everyone knows that thoughts and feelings change. You know, what you experience one day can differ tomorrow, next month, or next year. And so if you base your identity on your internal

experience, then your identity will change on a regular basis. Let me just give you an example. Singer and actress Demi Lovato dated multiple men as a young adult, but she declared herself queer in 2020. And then in 2021, she declared herself to be pansexual. Now the next year she claimed that she was non-binary and she changed her pronouns to they them and most recently she's returned to using she her pronouns because she claims that she's been feeling more feminine lately. Now that's at least three different gender identities and she's only about like 30 years old. But why think your internal states determine your identity?

I mean, of all the aspects of a person, why ground identity in an abstract and ever-changing component? That's why the body is meant to signal one's identity. is meant to signal one's identity. After all, if you ground your identity in your body, then it's hard to mistake what sex you are and impossible for it to change over time. And this allows your identity to endure as you get older, right? You remain the same no matter how you feel or how you express yourself. You are still you even if your style and preferences change. Now, a second problem with basing your identity on this internal experience is that it presumes that your identity is a matter of choice and not an objective reality. Now, choosing an ice cream flavor is a matter of preference, right? You just pick whatever flavor you like.

You know, today you might want Oreo cookie ice cream, but next month you might want mint chocolate chip. And there's no problem with changing your favorite flavor of ice cream because it's your prerogative to choose what ice cream you eat. Identity, though, should not be chosen, right? That's not the same thing because, you see, modern gender theory wrongly bifurcates gender identity from your biological sex and then grounds a person's identity in the former. And by doing so, identity becomes something decided upon by each individual based on an

internal feeling. each individual based on an internal feeling. If identity is an enduring part of who you are, then leaving it up to a personal decision is going to be problematic, right? Because people will end up identifying as one or more of a dozens of possible identities based on how they feel inside. And it becomes this subjective exercise, right? I mean, we allow children to do what they want to do when they're role-playing, right? And for example, they might want to be a pirate or a prince or a princess, but we recognize that they might feel the internal bravery of a prince, but everybody knows they're not objectively a prince.

Now, this doesn't mean that you won't have different feelings or different preferences or choose to express yourself differently than other people of the same sex. You know, right? I mean, that's obviously what makes every person unique. Your status as a man or a woman, though, doesn't change with varying internal states. Who you are is an objective reality and not subject to whim. And I would say the third problem with basing your identity on an internal experience is that it presumes that you are like God. But remember, in case you forgot, you're not the creator, right? You didn't make you. Determining who you are is, frankly, above your pay grade. Now, if you create something yourself, well, then, of course, you have full knowledge of the process of the materials that you used

and the purpose of what you made. And that's when you can decide its identity. Mere mortals shouldn't take the role of the divine, right? Since the creator creates the creature, it's his prerogative to decide his creation's identity. Transgender ideology subverts the role of the maker by allowing the creature to determine its identity. Now, although gender identity is a new concept, the core principle at play is nothing new. In fact, since the fall, humans have rejected their maker because the enemy instilled in our mind an ancient doubt. Has God said? Right? If you remember, that's the question that the devil asked Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. And like Adam and Eve, we have been enticed to be like God, a seductive lie that's intended to supplant God with ourselves. And modern gender ideology is only the latest flavor of that kind of deception.

Our maker, though, he knows best. In fact, he not only made us, he loves us, and that's why we can trust him and ground our identity in him. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to share it with a friend. And also don't forget to subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. And thanks for listening.

I look forward to thinking out loud with you next time. Thank you.