NorthOfNorth wrote on May 1
st, 2012 at 9:44am:
Sir Spot of Borg wrote on May 1
st, 2012 at 8:22am:
taking back our words is one thing but "worship" and "sin" and prolly several others have always been theirs. Without religion those words wouldn't have existed. We cant take back what was never ours. Some countries need to learn that.
SOB
Words evolve as language evolves. There is no word that must remain static throughout the life of usage.
Do a google to find how many words meanings have altered over the centuries.
'Spirituality' is a very good example of a word that not so many years ago would have been exclusively used in the context of orthodox religiosity. Recently that word can be used in the context of 'wondrous (or enthralling) sense of the numinous' without any intended reference to the religious or god.
You can probably blame movements like the Unitarian Universalist Church and Religious Naturalists (nude or otherwise) for that.
Gods Rest Ye, Unitarians (With thanks to Garrison Keillor)
Quote:Gods rest ye, Unitarians, let nothing you dismay;
Remember there’s no evidence there was a Christmas Day;
When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact.
Our current Christmas Customs come from Persia and from Greece,
From solstice celebrations of the ancient Middle East.
This whole darn Christmas spiel is just another pagan feast,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact.
There was no star of Bethlehem, there was no angels’ song;
There could not have been wise men for the trip would take too long.
The stories in the Bible are historically wrong,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact!