Sir, – In the article “Is ‘wokeness’ really the new religion? I find that hard to believe” (Opinion & Analysis, April 28th), Tom Boland refers to what he calls the “contemporary fashion for declaring that other people’s beliefs are ‘like a new religion`”.
Religions are indeed very complex.
Even religious scholars do not agree on how to define religions. There are affective, intellectual and functional definitions and there are cultural, spiritual, political, ritualistic, textual, symbolic, and communal aspects of religion. I agree that comparisons can end up being reductive. Nonetheless, comparisons can also be helpful.
I suggest that gender identity theory, for example, has many parallels to religions including the faith in what is an invisible, scientifically unfalsifiable internal sense of self that is akin to a soul. There are also days, ideas and rituals that are treated as though sacred. There is a sense of community, a will to transform the world, the idea of the “true self”, the changing of clothing and names, bodily modification, treating others as blasphemers, apostates or heretics, and a moral code.
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The phenomenological approach to religion understands that god is real for theists whether god exists or not.
In the same way, this approach can help us appreciate that gender identities are very real for those who have them. It can also help understanding the concept of gender identity in the context of a multicultural society.
Perhaps we could then accept that while many people believe gender identity should be given precedence over biology in matters of policy and law, not everyone should be forced or expected to believe. – Yours, etc,
COLETTE COLFER,
Waterford.