From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 41314
Date: 2005-10-13
Andrew:
> I realize now that I over-explained
> myself, going beyond the original intention of
> merely making [...] a humorous
> connection to the Bible, [...] that isn't it neat
> or interesting or mysterious how only recently,
> 3,500 or so years later, there is a coincidence
> [...]
I'm pretty sure that was a run-on sentence :) Thanks
for clarifying. I suppose I'm edgy because of
my accidental Jehovah's Witness upbringing. In that
religion, all the old turn-of-the-century Bible-based
ideas about language spread persist to this day.
Then I went through my nihilist phase, fighting
against my captures and deprival of modern knowledge.
So I start getting all Traumatic Stress Disorder when
I see someone connecting linguistics and religion
together in the same sentence.
I see your poetic point now. To be frank, I sometimes
think about this in connection with evolution. It's
more the kind of thoughts that could write a good
sci-fi novel but are a potential land-mine in
academic circles :)-- Yes, but then I checked the Bible and found that the "stories" of Shem and Ham and Japheth that I base all my proud comments on are almost only lists of names of men from whom various peoples derive, and not, as I thought, accounts of the origin of the languages of the area. The only story in Genesis that says anything about this, I believe, is the Tower of Babel story, and that just said that God found that everyone spoke the same language, so he decided to confuse all language for no reason whatsoever. A God who is a practical joker!
> There is always doubt, we always have to think again
> and remember and try to be sure, and with doubt
> always creeping up can we ever really arrive at
> truth?
Oh, you are delightfully anarchist, aren't you. Yes,
Brian and I have been debating over the 'basis of
Logic' in another thread (perhaps on the Nostratic-L,
I've lost track). My position is similar to your
view overall. However I stress that I still like
to comfort myself in the fantasy known as Existence.
Don't ruin my fantasy :P
-- I must apologize if I'm ruining anything for you. I know you have obvious intellectual strength, so I doubt that I'm making any serious dents in your armour (not that you're hiding anything). But yes, I am realizing that I am anarchistic, and by the way, I've always wanted to say publicly that I really wonder if we or other human beings are responsible for our destinies in even the slightest degree, since none of us asked to be born, as far as I know, and no one ordained what they would encounter in their lives, as far as I know.
Andrew
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