> Seriously, though, "chair" is a general category noun, unlike "Eric", but
> like "people". One of the things which makes people uncomfortable in
> the modern era is that they feel they are "just a number"...that is, a
> completely categorized and generalized "person". But people feel,
> in their gut, that they are more than just a label...so we give ourselves
> names
I've been thinking about "labels" for a while, too. Like John, calling
himself a "Christian". Like me, calling myself an "Atheist". I think
we do it only to make it simpler for people to understand us. It *is*
a simplification. It has to do with the way our language works, I
think. In claiming I "am" an Atheist, I use the verb "to be"... "is".
And that implies an objective truth. But "I" am not an objective
truth. I'm a human. I change. I believe what I want, not what some
steriotypical word -- "label" -- says I should.
"The spoken word was the first technology by
which man was able to let go of his environment
in order to grasp it in a new way."
Marshall McLuhan; Understanding Media, p. 57
Perhaps the new grip is more useful than the old, but it's also more
*dangerous*. The land of "steriotype" grows very large these days...
> And who is the author of <God>?
> For the fundamentalist there is none. <God> is the fundamental; the
> text with no author; the inconsistency of the universe personified.
I sniped this out of an email here a while back, and didn't take a name
(ooops!) Somebody want to claim it?:
"Personally, I would much rather admit to my own ignorance of the world
than to invent, as an absolution for that ignorance, a Divinity to
account for things I cannot yet explain. "
> >I tend to think this is where the "Implied Author" argument from design
> >breaks down.
>
> Bah! This is where it really gets going!
It's a sad world we live in, eh?
ERiC
PS: I'm thinking about changing the name of my Church from "The Church
of Freethought" to "The Church of Meaning".
I uphold Freethought, yes. But the purpose of the Church is to find
meaning in life. And the title (*label*!! -- simplification) should
express that.
Anybody know what the latin word for "meaning" is? The greek word? The
spanish word? The german word? The _____ word? I'm looking for
something with a nice ring... maybe I'll coin a new word...