Minnesota

Happy,

I suggest, if you really care at all, that you read all of Rhonda's posts on that thread. Hers was NOT a rhetorical question. She actually did NOT know, which is why I characterized her as I have.

Albion

Threads like that make my teeth hurt. She's arguing purely from prejudice and ignorance. She doesn't have the first clue about evolution, she just knows it's wrong. She doesn't know what the Nicene Creed is, despite its being the criterion for Chritianity on that very board. And she doesn't seem to be very keen to learn from the people trying to help her on that thread. Doesn't she realie that if you're going to start trying to persuade people of something, it helps to have a clue what you're talking about?

Late_Cretaceous

Rhonda is probably one of the more naive contributers to that forum, but far from being the most ignorant (of both evolution and religion). One example that springs to mind is the individual who called Daniel - of the Old Testament - a "good Christian". WHen I pointed out that Daniel lived several centuries before christians existed, he had no reply.

Happy Wonderer

You see "Was it inspired by God?" as a sincere question? Ahh well, then I guess that you can't see any humour in that thread. I guess I just have a weird sense of humour. Carry on...

hw

Late_Cretaceous

If you think that thread is funny check out this one , just mind that you put down your coffee first. A couple of guys who think science is an evil pagan god. These guys are absolutely paranoid.

RufusAtticus

The irony is that the term "pagan" comes from the Latin paganus which means "country dweller." That is because the people in the country were the ones who converted to christianity last and maintained many of the "old ways" long after they did. And what we observed in this country is that rural people are more likely to deny modern biology than city folk. Now a guy from Indiana complains that it is a "pagan" god. LOL

Lobstrosity

And "villain" comes from the Latin word for villager, supposedly because the church feared the country folk who refused to fully give up their "paganistic" beliefs and practices. I have no idea if it's true, but it (and the bit about "pagan") was just one (two, if you count the pagan thign) of the many fun informational tidbits in The Da Vinci Code.

ScumDog

Barbarian comes from a word meaning "foreigner".The german barbarians, or "foreigners", were dirty and not very civilized, so the connotations to barbarian arose from this.

GunnerJ

Actually, the "uncultured" connotation was always there. The word "barbarian" was used specifically because the ancient Greeks likened the speech of foriegners to the breying of sheep; "baaar... baar...baaaaaar..." They also considered non-Greeks inferior sub-humans.

God Fearing Atheist

...and, to be more percise, both "villain" and "villager" have the same Latin root: villa, a Lord's country house.

-GFA