I wanted to do an entry on my thoughts on the religious, the atheists and the agnostics. I decided to postpone said entry in order to address my findings at thesaurus.com.
Synonyms for religious include, but are not limited to:
Ethical, Goody (Goodly?), Honest, Honorable, Just, Moral, Noble, Pure, Righteous, Upright
The antonym for religious is atheistic, and synonyms for that include but are not limited to:
Depraved, Evil, Graceless, Heathen, Infidel, Profane, Unclean, Unprincipled, Unrighteous, Wicked
In light of the world we current live, is it just me or do these associations seem antiquated and biased? Bill Maher said something to the effect that 9/11 was a faith based initiative. In short, "religious" and its synonyms are neither mutually inclusive, nor mutually exclusive, ditto with 'atheistic" Does anyone out there know of a more secular resource?
As someone who considers himself to be anywhere from agnostic to mildly religious, I find the above entries to be highly offensive. In a language that is in a constant state of flux why hasn't this be updated? We have the time to debate whether "D'oh" should be added to the English dictionary, but something like this, something, that is in my mind, of more importance than Homer Simpsons' annoyed grunt, has slipped through the cracks. Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?
4 comments:
Wow! I can't believe that! I don't know what to say. I'm lost for words, and now I don't even have a reliable, unbiased source for them!
I know! Doesn't it sound like something from the inquisition?
I myself waver between the labels of agnostic and atheist, depending on how my day is going. When asked, I always say agnostic, because atheist still conjures those negative connotations, despite our secular society. I don't know why.
Hmmm, Perhaps this might help as atheist and agnostic do indeed have very different definitions.
An atheist believes there is no God or gods, whereas an agnostic is not sure whether God or gods exist - or that it is impossible to know.
But you're right, there does seem to be a stigma associated with atheists, more so than agnostics. I wonder if it has something to do with a bias that exists in certain thesauri?
You've piqued my curiosity, I wonder what thesaurus.com has to say about agnostics.
Some synonyms for agnostic at thesaurus.com include (but are not limited to): doubter, freethinker, sceptic, unbeliever.
Hmmm, you're correct, not nearly as bad as being an atheist.
Post a Comment