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H. Rearden
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« on: February 23, 2008, 06:47:20 PM »

On page 30 one of the characters says, "oh my god." I find that ironic because the student attends a school named after Heinlein and Heinlein was not a believer in gods. Apparently in the story mankind has not advanced as far I thought. Had I authored the grafic novel I would have subvstituted the word science for the word god. I make an effort to do so but sometimes I catch myself saying god.

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Rocketman
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« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2008, 08:28:59 PM »

I think your reading into that line alot more than there actually is.  I wouldn't be surprised to hear a total athiest occasionally make a comment like that if the situation was right and that person was surprised enough.
 Grin
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Leviathan
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« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2008, 10:11:27 PM »

On page 30 one of the characters says, "oh my god." I find that ironic because the student attends a school named after Heinlein and Heinlein was not a believer in gods. Apparently in the story mankind has not advanced as far I thought. Had I authored the grafic novel I would have subvstituted the word science for the word god. I make an effort to do so but sometimes I catch myself saying god.

Regardless, there's likely to have been language shifts.  But generally profanity and other emotional phrases are used without thinking of the meaning.  I mean, if you say "shit!" when, say, you realize you're being audited by the IRS, chances are you're not talking about fecal matter.  Unless you've just deposited some in your drawers.  And even then, chances are you're not referencing the brown baby you just dropped.

That's assuming people do rid themselves of religion over time.  Many fellow atheists don't seem to grasp that a lot of religious people are casual about their religion.  Even if we learn enough about the world to travel freely in time and space, all it would ever discredit would be individual religions.  Not necessarily the concept of deity.  It's slippery, that concept of deity.  Hides in the unlikeliest of gaps.
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Scott
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« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2008, 06:08:26 PM »

Even Ayn Rand was heard to say "God Bless You." On the Mike Douglas show, even.

Language shifts are always problematic when telling tales of the future. Substituting "science" for "God" in the middle of otherwise contemporary English  just sounds stilted and takes the reader out of the story. Quite a few writers (including Heinlein) used made-up phrases and epithets and occasionally it worked, but frequently it did not. The practice has fallen mostly out of fashion.

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H. Rearden
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« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2008, 09:08:22 PM »

Even Ayn Rand was heard to say "God Bless You." On the Mike Douglas show, even.

Language shifts are always problematic when telling tales of the future. Substituting "science" for "God" in the middle of otherwise contemporary English  just sounds stilted and takes the reader out of the story. Quite a few writers (including Heinlein) used made-up phrases and epithets and occasionally it worked, but frequently it did not. The practice has fallen mostly out of fashion.



I never really thought about it until I saw the SouthPark episode Go God Go

« Last Edit: February 26, 2008, 09:37:53 PM by H. Rearden » Logged
KBCraig
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« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2008, 11:34:55 PM »

More than one agnostic or atheist has cried out, "Oh, God! Oh, God!" during activities not related at all to religious services.  Wink
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wdg3rd
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« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2008, 09:18:26 AM »

I've been an atheist for a year longer than Jack Benny admitted to being alive, but I still use Xtian terminology when I drop something on my foot.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.  --  Denis Diderot
Rocketman
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« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2008, 02:11:51 PM »

Rearden:
     I'm not sure of the episode that your refering to.  Is that the one where Cartman gets frozen for 500 years (aka Buck Rodgers) and ends up in a world where several species of humanity argue over evolution and sea otters have their own kingdom?  Strange but unusually thought provoking episode.   Grin
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H. Rearden
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« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2008, 08:03:09 PM »

More than one agnostic or atheist has cried out, "Oh, God! Oh, God!" during activities not related at all to religious services.  Wink


I heard a woman I have been with say, 'Oh Darwin". Grin

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H. Rearden
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« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2008, 08:05:58 PM »

Rearden:
     I'm not sure of the episode that your refering to.  Is that the one where Cartman gets frozen for 500 years (aka Buck Rodgers) and ends up in a world where several species of humanity argue over evolution and sea otters have their own kingdom?  Strange but unusually thought provoking episode.   Grin

That's the one. The future people (and otters) would say, "science dammitt", "oh my science", science damn you", etc...

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