Uncle Ben – אין הכי נמי, for the one-in-many-thousands of people born with PHYSICALLY ambiguous features there are Halachic guidelines what to do… That is not the same as MENTALLY disturbed people making up their gender as they go along, and imposing on the rest of the world to go along with them…
AAQ – “But if we are talking of the essence – using chochma, I don’t think academic craziness should be of concern – as long as you know how to filter information out (or someone can do it for you)”
I think we agree in practice, but we define the term ‘Modern’ somewhat differently. “Using chochma” per se does not make one ‘modern’. There are plenty of professionals etc. who fully identify as Chareidi. What makes one ‘Modern’ (at least YU style) is seeing secular knowledge as an IDEAL – לשמה. This also extends to secular knowledge which isn’t simply dry technical know-how, i.e. literature, philosophy, ‘humanities’, etc. which contain VALUES. There is a world of difference between the two approaches. Most important, those who see secular knowledge and philosophy etc. as an ideal also tend to seek approval from (and ape) the secular world that they admire… How many MO do you know study (for example) Hindu literature and try to ‘reconcile’ Torah with that? So why is Western philosophy inherently any better? At least the Hindus believe SOMETHING created the Universe…
My point was, Western philosophy and ‘hashkafah’ is deteriorating at a pace that IMHO will soon leave no room for a sincere Yid of any flavor to IDENTIFY WITH AND ADMIRE it, or even BE ACCEPTED by it in anything more than a basic business-like fashion. In other words, MO who are ehrlich בין אדם למקום will eventually find themselves sort of Chareidim by default…