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Excessive Wordiness

Sometimes I get the impression that atheists hide behind a facade of intellectualism, by choosing longer than necessary words and/or sentences. For example we have "discussions" (three syllables) where MySpace has "threads" (one syllable).

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Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 26, 2011 at 4:15pm

You are no where near in the same category as my old friend who used 5 syllable words every other word, then smiled smugly when no one knew what she was talking about. The day she figured out, although, I don't use as many huge words as she did and I got even higher grades than she did, perhaps I was every bit as smart if not smarter than she was. On that day, she dumped me as a friend.

Permalink Reply by Susi Bocks on June 26, 2011 at 4:19pm

Well, maybe not such a bad thing? Sounds pretty shallow of her.

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 26, 2011 at 4:21pm

She was my best friend for 20 years. I never dreamed all I was to her was an ego boost.

Permalink Reply by Susi Bocks on June 26, 2011 at 4:47pm

Funny you should say that, I had a kinda had the similar situation but a little different. She went from being a stay at home mom with 3 children to getting a college education, then a fancy job, more continued education and then she accused me of not being as good as her and found no more value in our relationship, as if achieving some sort of intellectual high ground put her in a different class than me. It was a shame since we'd known each other for 30+ years.

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 26, 2011 at 4:55pm

It's hard to loose a friend of so many years over something so trivial. Can't everyone be smart in their own way? :o( My stepmom has only a high school education, but she is tons better at math than me, in fact, she's better at a lot of things than I am even though I am the "educated" one and we are still friends.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on June 26, 2011 at 6:08pm

Your example captures what I meant by "facade of intellectualism", which isn't the same thing as having a large vocabulary or talking a lot. After all being "top member" at AN for a while by definition brands me as "talking" more often than anybody else.

Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on June 26, 2011 at 4:54pm

LOL!

Permalink Reply by Lary9 on June 26, 2011 at 11:11pm

IMHO...vocabulary expands with experience for an explorer of wordcraft in the same way a journeyman rock climber's inventory of trade tools increases in his garage with time--- but becomes lighter and lighter in his rucksack for specific journeys.

Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on June 26, 2011 at 6:33pm

Scott, how does someone deconvert? When my momma told me Santa Claus wasn't real (but don't tell your brother) I asked her if Jesus was real, and she said "yes". I thought "no, he isn't", and I've been that way ever since I can remember.

Should we start a topic on this? It could get, er... verbose!

Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on June 26, 2011 at 11:18pm

Maybe I should have asked "why"? It seems rare for people to stop believing. Would that be an accurate statement? Maybe you're saying you formally had a church take you off their "list"? I've never been taken off the Methodist list as far as I know. I just never thought it mattered. I know I'm not on their mailing list. Maybe I'm listed as "inactive".

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on June 26, 2011 at 8:38pm

Same here, when I discovered that Santa was just a story I just assumed that the Easter Bunny, god and Jeebus were just stories as well – ghosts and goblins and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night were also just stories. Nothing has ever proved my assumptions wrong.
There has been a number of discussions on this topic - mostly verbosely.

Permalink Reply by Lary9 on June 27, 2011 at 5:27am

I see you're conversant with the Homer Simpson catechism.