Re: Irredeemably tainted words.

Brian D. Harper (harper.10@osu.edu)
Thu, 09 Jan 1997 16:55:08 -0500

At 03:25 PM 1/9/97 -0600, Steve wrote:
>At 11:24 AM 1/9/97 -0500, Loren wrote:
>>
>>
>>I really enjoyed what Steve Jones wrote about "mediate creation," and I
>>agree with much of it.
>>
>>But Steve's essay, and Jim's concurrence, on how the word "evolution" is
>>tainted beyond redemption got me wondering. Why stop there? What other
>>words are so tainted that we should stop fighting to redeem them from
>>anti-theistic metaphysical baggage, and simply eschew their use?
>
>>From a different perspective, how about the way that that the word
>"humanism" has been ruined so that it is automatically associated with
>things atheistic, whereas, in reality, there is a grand tradition of
>Christian humanism.

This discussion reminds me of a quote I heard, unfortunately,
I can't remember who said it:

"We have more concepts than we have words to describe them"

Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
Ohio State University