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[quote=Anonymous][quote=takoma]To those who quote the dictionary definition of "religion" or explain that one cannot be a Christian without accepting this or that doctrine:  Language is malleable.  We do not all use words in the same way.  A person can consider herself or himself to be devoutly religious while believing in a metaphorical God, while another person with extremely similar views of politics, charity, and most other aspects of life, might self-designate as an atheist.

If this thread were in a language forum, it would make sense to debate whether either of the above people is using correct terminology.  But in this Religion Forum, I think we should accept that words like "Christian" and "atheist" are used broadly, and only give a general approximation of the user's outlook.  Joe Biden and Rick Santorum, for example, are both Catholics, but that gives very little information about what to expect from them.[/quote]

I'm sorry I can't accept that as a valid argument. Language has meaning only when you nail down the definition of words. Words like "Religion", "Christianity", and "Catholic" have well defined meanings. If your understanding and belief of this world no longer conforms to the definition of Christianity and Religion, then it is wrong to call it Christianity and Religion and then blame the other side for arguing semantics.

Again I bring up the example of swimming as mentioned before. You can go to an exercise forum in a thread discussing swimming and claim that you love to swim the backstroke because it's so elegant. In ensuing discussions where people exchange their backstroke swimming techniques, you describe how you have your arms rotate forward instead of backward, how you face forward instead of up. It is then revealed that you do this in your living room, while standing on an exercise mat. When people point out that this is not swimming, let alone backstroke swimming, you argue that language is malleable, we do not all use words in the same way. You can consider yourself to be swimming the backstroke while standing on a mat rotating your arms forward, while another person doing an extremely similar activity might self-describe to be doing a Yoga movement. You can further argue that if this were a language forum, their concerns about the definition of swimming or backstroke might make sense. But in an exercise forum, we should accept that words like "swimming" and "backstroke" are used broadly, and only give a general approximation of what the user is doing. For example, both Joe Biden and Rick Santorum have swam before, but that gives very little information about what specific physical activity they were doing while "swimming".

If words had no defined meaning, there can be no productive discussion.

McLeanAtheist[/quote]

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