Bring on the pitchforks
I have nothing against people believing in their favorite deity or practicing their religion under one, clear, simple condition. Please leave me out of it.
We use the term "bible" to describe our site.. Anyone who ever visited the computer books aisle can probably attest that it's a very commonly used term when referring to "a publication preeminent especially in authoritativeness or wide readership"... In fact that's the definition of "a bible" if anyone cares to look it up. That's not to be confused with what many refer to as "the bible". This is the connection to the main topic of this rant.. which is "religious nuts".
We get a ton of nutty feedback, we get a ton of good feedback and sometimes we even get useful feedback.. but imploring us to "find god" and scaring us with fire and brimstone over the use of the term "bible" is a little out there.. but apparently we're all going straight to hell. Which begs for the question.. why would an almighty, all knowing and all understanding god give a damn (no pun intended) over the use of a term in the English language? If we called ourselves "biblia" (Polish) would we still be going to hell? Is every librarian (biblioteka, again, Polish) going to hell? Interesting.. a connection.. bliblia.. biblioteka.. anyone who knows a bit of Latin will recognize this one.. So it's pretty obvious, bible is not a religious term, it's just another Christian appropriation (see major holidays).
As I said above.. I have nothing against Christianity or any other religion (I have a ton of problems with the Roman Catholic church but that's a whole other rant).. but I do have problems with anyone who tries to tell me how to live my life because he feels he's saving my soul. Thanks, but I'd rather burn in hell than spend an eternity among holy nut-cases. Bring on the fire and brimstone it's so cold today that it sounds pretty damn (pun intended) nice.
Comments
amen, you are right, but these kind of speeches (salvation, preachers and hell) are a matter of two centurys back. Glad to hear that we are able (yet) to jump back in time and study sociologically these specimens in their environment.
Posted by: Luis | January 15, 2004 04:16 AM
Such is the world.
Posted by: david | January 15, 2004 06:22 AM
It is interesting to learn Polish contains words with Latin roots. Are there many such?
For what it's worth, the Latin word biblia comes from the Greek word biblia meaning books, plural. Once the various writings that comprise the Christian Bibile were gathered into one convenient tome, the word biblia was used to describe it because it was a collection of various books.
Thus as you fairly state in your post, its origins are secular, not sacred. It is a descriptive term that even when qualified with the definite article 'the' depends upon context to determine the meaning.
People that flame you for referring to your site as 'The Bible' for some specific field, meaning of course that it is an authoritative reference for such field, appear to act purely on impulse or even just emotion. Seems more people should follow what my mother always told me, "Think before you speak."
Posted by: tzicha | January 15, 2004 08:07 AM
Are your employer's potential customers complaining about this?
Posted by: Seth Gordon | January 15, 2004 08:29 AM
If someone taunts you about this again, throw one of the Left Behind books to the side of them. When they go to pounce on it, you can simply walk away.
Posted by: Randy | January 15, 2004 09:44 AM
What always makes me wonder is why these people feel compelled to "educate" us non-believers according to their beliefs? What do they hope to accomplish by sending you (or anyone) e-mails like this?
My theory is that it's a kind of denial. They're trying to squelch out anything in the world that might remind them that their way of thinking isn't the only one, because if there *is* more than one acceptable set of beliefs, there's a possibility that theirs is the WRONG one. OH NO! We can't face up to that...
(Speaking as Militant Agnostic - I don't know, but you don't know either).
Posted by: paul | January 15, 2004 02:49 PM
And because I have so much to say...
Poland "officially" became Catholic at approximately its time of its inception in the 11th century. My belief is that this was done mostly for political reasons - Germany was very nervous about a newly formed nation right on its borders (that region was a collection of non-aligned towns and villages until then), and the Polish king (that is, the guy who united all those towns and villages under his rule) realized that the Pope was a good friend to have. After all, the Germans would have no political problems from crushing an infidel nation, but slaughtering the citizens of another Catholic Nation... well, that might earn the Church's displeasure. And the Church was EVERYTHING in Europe back then.
The point here is that the Polish language has been under the Latin influence for over one thousand years. That's plenty of time for word migration. It should be fairly easy to find plenty of Polish words with Latin roots. (Comparing Polish and English might be harder - English is blend of Latin and German roots, which is why we tend to have two words for everything - pig and swine, for example).
Lesson over. Close your books. Go home.
Posted by: paul | January 15, 2004 03:04 PM
God, save me from your followers.
Posted by: Matt | January 16, 2004 10:04 PM
Poland was officially united and 'baptized' into Christianity in 966 and the guy who did it was actually a Prince. In addition to the external political reasons listed by Paul, there was also the internal need to somehow unite the people who until then existed only as part of various tribes of Polaks.
Posted by: Docia | January 17, 2004 11:14 PM
The term "bible" (small b) is also used in entertainment scriptwriting to mean the main story guidelines a writer must follow to keep their script consistent with what has gone before. Star Trek shows have (had) a bible, for example.
If the religious nuts need an example in terms they can understand, explain that someone writing a show like "Touched by an Angel" or "7th Heaven" might reference both a Bible and a bible.
Your use of the term is perfectly good usage and makes sense to anyone with an education... but you probably won't convince them that you're not a Satan worshipper.
Posted by: Ginny | January 18, 2004 12:45 AM
You could always just alert them that they are showing disrespect to their own holy tome by referring to it as 'the Bible' or 'the bible' or what have you. While there would be nothing wrong with referring to the individual books; Job, Corinthians, Genesis, Gospel according to..., etc...
The actual name for the book they are getting so up in arms about is The Holy Bible. And of course there are many synonyms such as the Good Book, the Good News, etc... But, if they pull out their copy it says "The Holy Bible" not, The Bible.
You're dealing with mental midgets.
Posted by: Restiffbard | January 18, 2004 09:24 AM