[ExI] 'Militant Atheists' (Was: Religion & transhumanism (not the usual!))

[Artillo]

:: tries to imagine what would happen if suddenly every single religious
establishment was burned to the ground in one fell swoop ::

Well it's a militant thought, anyway! :D

On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 1:01 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

>
> >... On Behalf ...
>
> >...I am a little confused about the exact nuance of the word "militant" in
> (contemporary? US? UK?) English. -- Stefano Vaj
>
>
> Stefano, in the literal sense a militant is one who takes up arms for a
> cause.  The way the term is used is one who supports a cause with extreme
> enthusiasm, but don't be confused by the intentional irony.  In the 60s
> they
> coined the intentionally contradictory term "militant pacifist" as a kind
> of
> joke, and it took off from there.  Obviously it isn't to be taken
> literally.
>
> Now of course we have lost the meaning of the term "literal" by overuse.
> That term has come to mean its own opposite.  For instance, I heard a
> newscaster say "The Texas wildfire has brought this city LITERALLY to its
> knees!"
>
> Hmmm, a city has knees?
>
> The term "literally" has now come to mean "figuratively."
>
> We humans screw language upwardly.
>
> spike
>
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