This is going to be a really random post. You see, I don’t take words too seriously. Perhaps in some sense words have meaning, but people don’t know what they mean when they say them. Nor do people understand what is meant when they hear them.
Someone recently asked me if I thought philosophy was a vein pursuit. Of course I said no, because I don’t think it is. We must have some Christians studying it, provided it is undergirded with theology. However, what I’ve come to realize since then is what I do think is vein is trying to nail down language or words. I didn’t say trying to understand or clarify words, but simply trying to nail them down, as if some final verdict can be reached. This is a vein pursuit for humans. Words have meaning, but only to the person who speaks them and it can never be the same meaning to any other person, even that same person at a different time. So in reality, a word can never mean the same thing more than once.
This is why I also do not care about grammar or spelling, since there is no legitimate final authority to determine what is “right” or “wrong”. Notice I put the period after the parenthesis, because I think it looks better that way. You can’t stop me or tell me I’m wrong. I can’t wait to teach this to my elementary school kids; I’m sure their teachers will love me.
Of course, meaning can be understood enough for us to have communication, even if it’s never perfect. That is our hope of knowing anything. The only perfect communication we will ever have before glory is our prayers to God. Our perfect picture of communication is in the Trinity of God.
But because I know that language is always in flux and always changing, I just don’t take it too seriously. I do want to be understood, and that requires… contextualization. Is it more valuable to see the world as it is, or as it should be? Or is it most valuable to learn to keep both in mind at the same time?
Posted on October 9th, 2008 by nateschlomann
Filed under: Uncategorized
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