Someone has to say it: if people literally believe that the church's goal is to save the universe, then they have a HUGE task ahead of them. Moreover, they need to get crackin' soon, because the universe ain't gettin' any smaller - those faraway galaxies are running away. Any accusations that the notion of "saving the world" betrays an elevated self-importance are a million (well, more than that) times more applicable in this case.
Of course, to be charitable, their intended meaning might differ. By "universe" they might mean simply "all the bits of reality that I affect". Alternatively, maybe my bedrock assumptions don't match theirs. I assume that words mean things, have literal references to objective truth. Someone who doesn't assume that to be the case doesn't take words seriously anyway and therefore sees no value in precision or clarity of communication. He or she says "universe" because he or she feels like it, not because the word signifies anything.
In related news, intellectual haze is not profundity except to the weak-minded.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Good food for thought.
I confess that I wrote this more for fun than to say anything important. Taking what is likely to be a metaphorical usage of a word like "universe" and interpreting it literally is just me being a bit facetious. (Astronomy is a fascinating topic, by the way.)
The part at the end was intended more seriously. Words can be used metaphorically and/or playfully from time to time. But we should always keep in mind that words must have fixed meanings so that we're able to communicate objective Truth (come to think of it, if words didn't have fixed meanings we wouldn't even be able to tell objective lies!).
Post a Comment