Lux Lucet

Riding the coattails of the successful homosexual movement, transgender advocates have enjoyed tremendous success in recent years. Transgenderism, the medical term is gender dysphoria, upholds the claim that it is possible to make a separation between the biological sex of an individual and that same person’s gender identity.

To put it another way, transgenderism claims that there really are women trapped in men’s bodies. Transgender advocates believe that science supports their view and that broader society has an obligation to accede to their demands to normalize what not that long ago was considered deviant behavior.

One particularly glaring, and as one critic described it “cringe worthy,” example of claimed scientific support for transgenderism was seen recently on Bill Nye The Social Justice Guy’s Netflix program Bill Nye Saves the World.

Using the cover of science to advance his evolving personal beliefs about the validity of transgenderism, Nye featured a performance by actress Rachel Bloom of a rap song titled “My Sex Junk,” the lyrics of which I just can’t bring myself to include in this blog post. If you have a strong stomach, you can read more about this charming little ditty here and here.

The Ad Hominem Argument, What Is It?

So just what is an ad hominem argument and how can Christians employ it in dealing with Bill Nye and others of his ilk?

The first thing to keep in mind is that the ad hominem argument may not be what you think it is.

The name itself is Latin and means “to the man.” Generally, when people talk about ad hominem arguments, they mean arguments that consist of personal insults. “You can’t believe so and so, why, he’s a scoundrel!,” would be what many people would think of as an ad hominem. But this isn’t quite accurate.

Arguments that rely on attacking the character of a person are more accurately described as ad hominem abusive arguments. Such arguments are considered informal logical fallacies and are in all cases, but especially in the cause of Christian apologetics, inappropriate

Ad hominem arguments, on the other hand, are a different thing altogether.

An ad hominem argument is the technique of adopting for the sake of argument an opponent’s premises to show that, based on his own beliefs, he is reaching an incorrect conclusion.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus often used such arguments in his confrontations with the Saducees and Pharisees. Consider the following passage:

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:10-13).

This is a classic example of an ad hominem argument, and it’s important that we recognize it as such. For if we do not, we may fall into the error of supposing that Christ was calling the Pharisees “righteous,” and telling them that they needed no help.

Far from it, Jesus was not saying the Pharisees were okay as they were. What he was saying is that in their own eyes they were righteous.

And adopting the Pharisees’ view of themselves for the sake of argument, Jesus goes on to quite logically conclude that, based on their own high opinion of themselves, they had no grounds to hassle him about his keeping company with “tax collectors and sinners.”

In everyday language, Jesus’ argument ran something like this: You Pharisees think you’re righteous. Very well. Quite obviously you don’t need my help. But these people over here who you think are sick, clearly you would agree that they need help, and that’s just what I’m giving them. So stop your complaining.

Jesus took the Pharisees’ own premises – they were righteous and the tax collectors and sinners were a sorry lot – and flipped the script on them, drawing the correct conclusions demanded by their own thoughts.

Using The Ad Hominem On The “Science Guy”

Bill Nye, as he would be quick to tell you, is quite impressed with science, thinking that it furnished man with knowledge.

This is an error. For while science certainly has a list of impressive achievements – achievements which Christians certainly can applaud – what science does not do is furnish us with knowledge. That is to say, science, does not provide any final answers.

At its best, all science can do is provide us with its latest opinion. There is no knowledge in science in the sense of reaching a final conclusion.

To put it another way, contrary to last month’s March for Science, the science is never settled. Regardless of what scientific discipline you’re talking about, science is always in flux.

But the ever dogmatic Bill Nye seems blissfully unaware of this. That, or he would prefer that at least his audience remain in the dark about the limits of science.

Writing in Gizmodo, Maddie Stone says of Nye’s show, “If you’re skeptical about human-caused climate change or the safety of vaccines [or, for that matter, the truth of the Transgender movement’s arguments] would being berated in front of a live studio audience by a bombastic old man make you change your mind? Then congratulations, Bill Nye’s new Netflix show, Bill Nye Saves the World, is literally just for you!

Bill Nye, it would seem, is a genuine Bible thumping atheist. Who knew?

But while Nye is busy attempting to indoctrinate his viewers on the scientific basis of transgenderism, a funny thing happened to the science: it changed.

As the Daily Wire
reports,

Transgender activists have simultaneously detached gender completely from sex, and suggested that men can magically become “real women” by merely “identifying” as female, and vise-versa. This is untrue, of course. A new study composed by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers just widened the hole in the transgender narrative pushed by progressives: it has been found that the two sexes express over 6,500 genes differently, adding to the already major biological differences between men and women.

It turns out that the differences between men and women are even more profound at the genetic level that previously realized. That’s the current state of the science.

This conclusion undermines the argument advanced by Nye and others that science supports transgenderism.

And this new study is not the only such scientific example. Paul McHugh, former Psychiatrist in Chief of Johns Hopkins Hospital, has likened society’s recent fascination with the transgender meme to Hans Christian Andersons’ tale The Emperor’s New Clothes. While it has become fashionable to believe the transgender propaganda, there’s not much science behind it.

Even Bill Nye once believed that one’s sex was genetically determined and that the choices were limited to male and female. In one of Bill Nye’s programs dating from 1996, a teenage narrator explains, “Inside each of ourselves are these things called chromosomes, and they control whether we become a boy or a girl…There are only two possibilities: ‘XX’ a girl, or ‘XY’ a boy.”

He’s come a long way, baby.

But not only has Nye changed his opinion, he has attempted to conceal his change of view from the public. According to The Federalist,
as part of the re-release of Nye’s 1996 program discussed above, the segment on sex determining chromosomes has been edited out.

Bill Nye the Social Justice Guy doesn’t want you to know that he once held what are now considered a heterodox opinions on sex determination.

So what accounts for Nye’s change of heart? Well, it can’t be the science. Because the science is only serving to reinforce the idea that one’s sex is binary, you’re either a male or a female, and permanent.

Perhaps Nye’s change of heart is driven by his desire to be popular and fashionable. That’s an easy motive to understand, but it’s not science. And for him to go around acting as if science supports concepts such as transgenderism and gender fluidity (the idea that one’s gender can change over time) is a case of going beyond the evidence.

Or to put it a bit more bluntly, Nye is lying to people about the transgender issue and using science as his cover story.

The Ad Hominen Agrument, A Summary

What we’ve done above is to apply the ad hominem argument to Bill Nye assertions about transgenderism and demonstrated that there are serious problems with his line of thinking.

First, although Nye claims to be pro-science, his opinions on transgenderism appear to be nothing more than dogmatism, unsupported by the science that he himself claims to hold in high regard.

If Nye actually had the respect for science that he claims he has, the proper conclusion for him would be to hold fast to what he said on this program in 1996.

Second, Nye’s current position on the relationship between biology and sex flat contradicts what he said on his own show twenty years ago, but he has attempted to conceal this from his audience.

This isn’t a problem with Nye’s science, but it does call into question his ethics. Nye’s lack of respect for basic honesty is especially concerning in light of the fact that he has professed himself to be open to criminal charges against climate-change dissenters. Dishonesty coupled with dogmatism is a recipe for despotism.

Limits To The Ad Hominem

As useful as ad hominem arguments are, as Christians we do not rest our case on them. For while ad hominems are useful for pointing out the flaws in our opponents thinking, by themselves they do not establish the truth of our own position.

In the Christian system of thought, the Bible alone is furnishes with knowledge, and that knowledge is sufficient to equip the man of God for every good work, including the good work of not only refuting enemies of the truth such as Bill Nye, but also of explaining God’s mind on the matter at hand.

In short, the Bible teaches that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” There is no hint anywhere in Scripture that there are 58 genders, as ABC reports Facebook would have us believe.

Further, nowhere in Scripture is there any hint that one’s gender and one’s biological sex are separate and distinct, or that they somehow are subject to change.

On the contrary, God’s revealed Word everywhere speaks of men and women who think and behave according to today’s fashionable transgender norms as “perverted persons” subject to criminal sanction and God’s condemnation.

A Christian View of Transgenderism

To speak of God’s condemnation of transgenderism is, of course, to court condemnation as a hater.

But Christians are not called to hate their enemies, but to love them.

The bottom line is that we’re miserable sinners, all of us. Even those who are called in Christ have nothing about which to boast at the bar of God’s perfect, holy justice.

Were we to bring out works, even our good works before him as the reason for our justification, he would rightfully condemn us all to hell for eternity.

And knowing the wrath of God, as Christians we plead with those who do not know him, including those who are struggling in the frightening darkness of transgenderism, repent and be reconciled to God!

Speaking the truth to those who are perishing is not hatred, but love.

And in all this, it is important to keep in mind that God alone changes the hearts of men. We can present his Word, but it takes an act of the Spirit to bring men to saving faith.

Conclusion

Bill Nye and others are contributing to the current transgender mania by covering their progressive politics with a gloss of scientific respectability.

One effective method Christians can use for revealing the flaws in their thinking to make use of the ad hominem argument, by which we assume our opponents premises, in this case that science supports the claims of transgender advocates, and show this to be false.

But while ad hominem arguments are especially good for revealing the flaws in our opponents thinking and perhaps getting some people to at least consider what the Bible teaches about men and women, by themselves ad hominems do not establish the truth.

For the truth, we must ultimately make our arguments from the pages of Scripture and pray that by the grace of God some might understand and assent to it.