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Tag Archives: language
How Do You Know? Factive Verbs in Relation to Political, Religious, and Scientific Discourse
I’m thinking about factive verbs this morning in relation to such things as global warming, God’s existence, evolution, the future of the stock market, etc. ESTABLISH, for example, is a very strong, emphatic verb, as in, “I’ve established the truth … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, God, language, philosophy, Politics, religion, science, verbs
3 Comments
Definition and Origin of the Phrase “The Whole Nine Yards”
Blaise Pascal once wrote someone the following: “I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” Today we might say that Pascal gave his reader, not the short version of his thought, … Continue reading
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Tagged Charles Darwin, evolution, language, memes, Richard Dawkins, words
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Atheism and Free Will: The End of Praise and Shame?
If you’re an atheist and have concluded that free will doesn’t exist, where does that leave praise and shame? Atheist Jerry Coyne, who does not believe humans have free will, suggests that it leaves praise and shame in the dust: … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, b.f. skinner, critical thinking, determinism, free will, God, jerry coyne, language, philosophy, rhetoric
3 Comments
In the Beginning Wasn’t the Word?
If you’re inclined to believe that your dog or cat has thoughts, but lacks a sophisticated vocal language for communicating them, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker agrees with you. He argues that language isn’t, strictly speaking, necessary for thought. Interesting. ___
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Tagged cats, dogs, language, life, philosophy, psychology, reason, steven pinker, thought
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How to Change The Way You See Things: Conceptualization, Reconceptualization, And Thomas Aquinas
. Thomas Aquinas thought that vegetables and animals have souls. According to him, the soul of the vegetable—its matter and essential form—is to take in nutrients, and the soul of the animal is to enjoy access to the senses and to move. But … Continue reading
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Tagged Catholicism, concepts, defamiliarization, God, language, philosophy, poetry, reason, the soul, Thomas Aquinas
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A Great Double Entendre
. A color engraving, from 1814, with this exchange: ‘My sweet honey, I hope you are to be let with the Lodgins!’ ‘No, sir, I am to be let alone.’
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Tagged 19th century, comedy, double entendre, humor, language, life, love, sex
4 Comments
David Hart v. Kevin Drum: Is God Completely Full of It?
A plenitude is something or someone completely full of it (whatever it happens to be). And so the question arises: is God best defined as a plenitude, as when David Hart calls God “an absolute plenitude of actuality”? In other words, is … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, God, Islam, Jesus, language, psychology, religion, the wizard of oz
3 Comments
Of Cookie Crumbs and Religion’s True Nature
I have two questions. Here’s my first: if a crumb from a cookie falls to the kitchen table and breaks into four pieces, do you now have one cookie crumb divided by four, or four cookie crumbs? Here’s my second … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, critical thinking, God, Islam, Jesus, language, philosophy, psychology, religion, Richard Dawkins, skepticism
4 Comments
Lost in the Cosmos: Language and Irony
Once you acknowledge (as I do) that the universe appears, paradoxically, as either self-created or always existent, and that it consists of atoms and the void and nothing else, then there is nothing in that universe that can tell you, as … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Buddhism, comedy, diversity, God, language, life, poetry, Richard Dawkins, richard rorty, tragedy
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Daniel Dennett: the Vanquisher of “Deepity” Religion—and Poetry?
The Daniel Dennett deepity slide that Jerry Coyne took a picture of here is one that I wrote into my notebook (I was at the same conference). A deepity, according to Dennett, “is a proposition that seems to be profound … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Daniel Dennett, language, philosophy, physics, poems, poetry, psychology, the ontological mystery
27 Comments
Two Interesting Links for the Day
How language shapes the way we think. How the Internet is impacting our writing.
An Appeal to What the Book Says: Webster’s Dictionary, Pat Boone, and the Fight over Gay Marriage
Pat Boone has given us yet another compelling reason to oppose gay marriage: Webster’s Dictionary! I noticed this powerful use of logic by Pat Boone today in a World Net Daily editorial that he penned (or, at least, word processed): Not just the … Continue reading
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Tagged Christianity, dictionary, gay rights, homosexual marriage, language, marriage, pat boone, Politics, religion, webster's dictionary, women's rights, words
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Not Out of Mesopotamia: The New York Times Today Reports that Scientists Contradict the Bible, and Locate the “Garden of Eden” in Either West or East Africa
The Bible’s book of Genesis puts the first man and the first woman (Adam and Eve) in a garden called Eden, and claims that this garden was located along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). But the New York Times … Continue reading
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Tagged Adam and Eve, apologetics, evolution, Genesis, genetics, human origins, James Dobson, Jesus, John Macarthur, language, science, the Bible
5 Comments
Mexican Flu, Swine Flu, or H1N1? A Pandemic Gets Rebranded
Whether or not the source for H1N1 was a Mexican pig farm (and this is by no means certain), the implication that this virus is somehow a “Mexican flu” and should be called Mexican flu borders on the racist, and carries … Continue reading
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Tagged flu, George Orwell, H1N1, language, Mexican flu, Michael Savage, michelle malkin, orwellisms, pandemic, rush limbaugh, swine flu, virus
6 Comments
Prometheus Unbound 