On 08 Feb 2014, at 20:06, Chris de Morsella wrote:
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]
] On Behalf Of John Clark
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2014 8:01 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Suicide Words God and Ideas
The invention of language was obviously of great benefit to the
species called Homo sapiens, but like all tools it is not perfect
and sometimes the brain can waste a great deal of processing power
spinning its wheels over questions of words rather than ideas. For
example, a recent poll showed that 70% of people in the USA thought
that if a dying patient agreed then doctors should be allowed to
"end the patient's life by some painless means"; however only 51%
thought that doctors should be allowed to help a dying patient who
wanted to die "commit suicide". Another example would be those who
DON'T believe in a omnipotent omniscient intelligent conscious being
who created the universe and is responsible for morality but DO
believe in "God".
Well said John - and in this (if not on all things)
Even on his argument, that nobody understand but him, against step 3?
Then I invite you to attempt to explain it to us.
we agree - language is an imprecise and sometimes tragically
misleading tool, albeit one most powerful in helping our species
build out the vast assemblage of the various human cultures.
The importance of clearly communicating cardinal terms cannot be
overstated.
I agree. That is why I have given a clear and general notion of God.
It does not make physics into a religion, in a general sense, but it
makes physicalism into one, a bit like 0 is a number (which means
numerous!).
Words are symbolic vehicles, conveying meaning across the
discontinuous gulf between minds. Not only must the minds in the
communication chain, share an agreement of their symbolic meaning -
in order for them to work as intended, but as you pointed out the
choice of words used to convey a thought can have a profound effect
on the outcome.
But in the choice of a word meaning, you cannot satisfy everyone. With
"god" you make nervous the atheists, for example. But that is normal,
as atheists want some precise God to be able to say that they don't
believe in it, like if in science we could learn from a statement
refuting fairy tales. In fact, it helps the maintenance of the fairy
tales.
One exercise I engage in is to parse what I read for words whose
purpose is to color meaning rather than describe some fact. "News"
reports are an excellent place to discover this treasure trove of
the use of adjectives and coded phrases meant to trigger emotional
responses and to generate firm opinions.
Right, bt very often, changing the words can also have some perverse
effect and is confusing about the intended concept. Concepts, like
theological concepts are by their very nature rather hot. It is not
just the words.
Bruno
Chris
John K Clark
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