One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." It kind of describes our entire society these days. Consider. "Virtual" is defined as "something that corresponds to reality." We've modified that to mean, "Something that isn't actually real." In a very, very similar way, "literal" is defined as "following the words of the original very closely and exactly" and we're using "literally" to mean "not really." We're literally using "literally" to mean "not literally."
Some are called "contronyms," words like "sanction" that means both "to permit" and "to penalize" or "oversight" which can mean "to supervise" or "to fail to notice." Then there are words that have shifted meanings like "moot" which once referred to things we need to examine further and now means things we don't need to discuss or "terrific" which once meant "causing terror" and now means "excellent." You see, we keep shifting language and soon we create our own "Tower of Babel" where language is just confused. It becomes a serious problem when those in power use them in contradictory ways. DEI is an acronym that means "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" ... virtually. In fact, it is mostly implemented by banning white men ... which is not diverse, not equitable, and not inclusive. We decry racism and argue that racism is limited to white people ... a form of racism. We castigate people for being judgmental ... which is a judgmental thing to do. We won't tolerate intolerance. We argue "love is love" and consider ourselves progressive when, in fact, we've simply shifted the definition and still block love that doesn't meet our criteria. (For instance, objectophilia, polygamy, polyamory, bestiality, etc. are all still "not love" because we've defined them that way ... which is the same thing they did when they banned interracial marriage.)
The world keeps telling us we're getting better and better. "Progress" they call it. God said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9) and "Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom 1:21). Is there any wonder we're in the state we're in? Is there really any question that the people of our day need Christ, a death to the old, a new heart?
2 comments:
You mention the Tower of Babel, and what if that is what this is, simply the continuation of Babel? Is it possible that even though nearly a thousand years span from Adam to Babel, they could have understood each other perfectly, but after Babel, we struggle to communicate between hundreds of years?
I have an uncle and aunt who were missionaries into deep Mexico. They learned a language known only there and came away with some interesting insights. He told me of cases where a small group gets split up and within 100 years the two groups no longer speak the same language. (One example is the Bounty mutineers who split between two islands. Within a century, their shared English language had diverged into two distinct languages.) We're pretty good at ... failing to communicate.
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