On our way to drop off a piano bench to Alison and Dean, we listened to a CBC report on semi-identical twins.
The twins are chimaeras, meaning they carry two sets of DNA. The mother's egg was fertilized by two sperm cells, and then split, so they each have a combination of genetic material from one egg and two sperm.
It gets better. One sperm contributed an X chromosome, but the other contributed a Y. That is, within each twin, some cells are male, and some are female.
So you have two sets of instructions trying to build one person. One twin develops as a male. The other develops as a female. Mostly. Because their organs were built with contributions from both cell types, the sex organs (in particular) are a melange of girl and boy parts. The "girl" twin has some interesting genitalia, and also sports ovotestes: combinations of ovary and testis.
This is fascinating in and of itself, but of course, it's what it does to the apple cart of gender and sexuality that is most fun. For these twins any relationship will be a semi-homosexual relationship, no matter which gender they go for. Are they gay? Are they half-gay? Are gay and straight illusionary opposites? Are binary oppositions illusionary, period? I'd love to roll this one down the center church aisle and watch the philosophical mayhem. Dah, the whole argument over who people are allowed to be in love with is stupid anyway.
(Author's aside: Did you like my invitation to debate followed by immediate dismissal of grounds for debate? Dirty pool, I know. I have a post to get through, people! But I feel your pain, speaking of church, because whenever I do attend, somebody gets to monologue at me for an hour without a single opportunity for rebuttal and it drives me mental.)
Also, I figure these twins have 1.5 souls apiece, based on the not-at-all controversial view that the soul is infused into the material body at the moment of conception. I guess that same logic dictates that identical twins have only half a soul. And that single-birth chimaeras have two. Oh geez. Time for a heartfelt prayer: O Lord, please get Your act together and fit Your creations into our preconceived notions of how life works. Amen.
Food for thought, eh? Food for thought.
for further reading...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_Sexual_Orientation_Grid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender
That's two posts in a row that mention God. Is it the fact that Facebook asks for your religious views that got you thinking about Him? I must say, I never thought about grace before meals that way -- I shall henceforth not even think about feeling guilty for never thinking say grace.
Cases like this are vanishingly rare and deserve to be treated with compassion, not twisted into GLBT propaganda. Physical malformation (or intellectual, or emotional, for that matter) need not determine lifestyle choices.
Furthermore, if you read the ingredients in your food, you will realize the necessity of asking God to bless it.