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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hmm.  My thoughts on this are evolving.  But I'm not convinced that the part of our brain that experiences this "non-word" fully is capable of translating the "thing" - "thought" - "knowledge" (see, none of these feels right to me) into language.  Or, perhaps it's that the language forming part of the brain is muddying the waters with all of it's attempts at categorizing and symbolism.  It know no other way.

I listened to an old Radiolab podcast the other day -- maybe you've listened to it -- it was the story of this man who was deaf and who had never been taught to communicate and at age 27 he still didn't have language.  He'd never been taught that there was a word or a symbol for everything.  The woman telling the story said it took her months to finally teach him that "Cat" represented a cat.  And then, once that light bulb turned on, of course his entire world opened.

She went back to interview him years later and asked him about his life before that time -- he made some statement to the fact that he couldn't recall what his thoughts were before that moment.  There was no way for him to describe, or even remember, what was going on in his head.  It was a bank spot in his memory to an extent.

It's just had me thinking a lot about words lately, how they are a communal and fluid thing.  And when you think about religion and combine language with the evolved human brain that is constantly trying to infer meaning into things, I think this may be why religion captures so many people in an irrefutable way.   I don't deny it serves those basic human needs: moral code, unity, etc. but I think there's something else at work.  It's like[b], the 5 year olds in Sunday school didn't know what they were missing, they didn't know "God" was a symbol they needed until they were taught it, and once the symbol is there, it's sort of unbreakable. [/b] There's no reference point to take you back to before.  Like our deaf friend and the word cat.  Henceforth, it's a cat, just because it's a cat.

Is this making any sense?[/quote]

Some, but regarding the 5 year olds -- there are lots of things they may not have words for -- emotions like greed, horror, ecstasy, but they can and do experience such emotions and then remember them later.   As for god being a symbol they "needed" - many people reject God later in life and even some 5 year olds don't get it when first presented to them.  I know of people who assumed Jesus was in the same category as Santa Clause and were shocked to find out that adults believed in him.

I do think that what you say may apply to some people -- who have a natural tendency to feel that there is something "out there."  Let's say it's a sense that others don't have unless they are taught that they must believe in a particular entity that is "out there" but can't be seen.  This is all speculation on my part.[/quote]

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