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Thursday, August 2, 2012 - 12:28PM CDT

Word games: revisionist vocabulary

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

Whether you realize it or not, words are being redefined in our current society. This post will outline a few of those changed definitions that I've learned over the years. I'm sure you've encountered these many times.

I don't want to be guilty of the same type of mischaracterizations as the predominant critics of Christianity, so I have to say the following does not apply to all of them. However, it does apply to the most vocal and outspoken of Christianity's critics, that is, what you're most likely to read and hear in the media, in books and on the internet.

Bigot: Expanded to include all Christian believers who hold to the Bible as authoritative truth. See the new definition of Hate.
Christian: Anyone who takes a conservative viewpoint. In some cases, this includes anyone who is not an atheist. Person does not actually have to be a member of a church nor make any sort of profession of faith in Christ. Therefore, anything that person says or does represents Christianity.
Critical thinking: Synonymous with Freethought.
Freethought: Freethought means not letting the Bible tell you how to think. Instead, it means letting society, the media, and/or popular book authors tell you how to think.
Hate: What all Christian believers who hold to the Bible as authoritative truth do. Simply believing a certain action is wrong makes the Christian guilty of "hating" the person who commits the act. This hate does does not actually have to include the emotion of hate, physical/verbal abuse or secular discrimination. Simply belief that the action is wrong constitutes hate.
Logic, reason, evidence: Synonyms that are the adult equivalent of "touch blue, make it true". Invoking these terms absolves the user from having to back up their arguments, and automatically makes Christianity false without the burden of presenting sound arguments. Other words used in this context include Bigot, hate and freethought (see above).