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thepete
on Saturday, October 8th at
3:37 PM. [link]
I agree with the sentiment of this “Words that Christians Misuse” but I think this graphic utterly full of crap.
“Study” saying what they really do at “Bible Study” is really “Bible Worship” is semantics. Most people who study something usually revere that thing or else they wouldn’t be studying it. You might as well call Neil deGrasse Tyson a “Science Worshipper” (and you’d be accurate).
“Truth” this is NOT the “conformity with fact or reality.” I’m not sure where this definition even comes from. Merriam-Webster defines truth as the following (important part emboldened/italicized by me):
a archaic : fidelity, constancyb : sincerity in action, character, and utterance 2a (1) : the state of being the case : fact (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : actuality (3) often capitalized: a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true <truths of thermodynamics >c : the body of true statements and propositions3a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : true 2c : fidelity to an original or to a standard 4capitalized Christian Science : god— in truth: in accordance with fact : actually
So, in other words, one of the official definitions of the truth fits pretty much with the way Christians use it. Sad that language, itself, seems to be biased toward religion. But again, Christians aren’t really misusing the word “truth.”
“Morality” is NOT what causes the least amount of harm to others. That’s the most absurd definition of “morality” I’ve ever read. Morality is doing what is right (though it’s definition is more involved than just that). Sometimes we define “right” as doing more harm for the greater good. Like going to war, or killing in self-defense, or euthanasia. Morality is a big fat gray zone of debate since so often the very definition of what is “right” changes based on one’s mood. So, if you believe what God says is right and someone tells you God said that it’s OK to slaughter the Canaanites, then wiping out all of the people of Canaan is a moral thing to do.
“Freewill” is not a word. Well, not a noun, anyway. It’s an adjective. It means “voluntary” or, oddly, “spontaneous”. What Christians say God gave us is “Free Will”. In other words, the ability to be free with our will. Of all the problems I have with religion, I think this is the part I have the least trouble with. But the above graphic says “In the Bible God only gave us the ability to choose what we want to do (will), but not the freedom to act upon those choices.” This makes no sense. The Bible says we are free to exercise our will. Which part of “free will” stops you from “acting upon those choices”? The reality, for both Believers and non-believers, is that there are consequences to your actions. Christianity dreams up all sorts of scary shit to keep Believers in line, but there’s nothing in Christianity that forces Believers to be a certain way—they just scare you into it. That’s still free will since it is your choice to do something that will result in punishment.
“Adultery” does not mean “having sex with a person who is married to another.” I’ll paraphrase the correct definition and say that adultery is having sex with someone other than one’s spouse. As for the part where Jesus says adultery and lust are the same thing, I think, from a certain point of view, that’s an accurate statement. The idea is to keep all of your love for your spouse and when you feel amorous toward someone who isn’t your spouse without acting on those feelings, in a way, you’re cheating. Of course, you’re also giving into your genetics, which aren’t really programmed for monogamy, so whatever.
“Love” is the second of two words that is properly defined by this graphic. Though it is incomplete. The complete definition is “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.” It is standard Christian propaganda to say that God has a personal relationship with all of us and that “He” “loves” us. This is obviously not true since there is no God. However, this is not an example of Christians misusing words. They say that “God is love” because they are good at marketing.
Wow, I’m really starting to wonder about my fellow atheists. When you make up a whole graphic that claims to describe how Christians misuse certain words, you might want to consult a dictionary, first.
Seriously, this stupid graphic is one of the most moronic things I’ve read in weeks—and I’ve been reading a lot about Rick Perry, so that’s saying something!
