Amazing How Divided We Are...

[HammerStone]

I saw someone shared this article this morning about a neolithic "cathedral" discovered in Scotland. I personally find it to be a fascinating discovery with some really beautiful work done by peoples of the past, but inevitably my eyes found their way down to the comments area where many people were discussing the use of the term "cathedral" rather than the actual discovery. There were numerous posts alleging cultural bias and other things because the publication used the word rather than temple or some other word to denote a religious center.

Can I just say that I find this amazing? I understand that generally the term carries with it a connotation of Christianity. However, I knew from the article's headline that it simply meant "nicer than normal" religious structure rather than the specific discovery of a Christian place of worship from the Neolithic period.

Our society is so divided over words it's mind boggling. We have people essentially creating victimhood and aggression on a people that died many thousands of years ago. Is there no end to this sort of madness?

Link: https://www.facebook.com/archaeologymag/photos/a.10151463027509795.1073741825.10394804794/10153367029179795/?type=1&theater

 

[pom2014]

There are many terms used inappropriately by modern people.

Mainly because they do not really care what words actually mean or where they come from.

This is why many today do not even write proper English and use abbreviations or pictures to express themselves.

What truly confounds me is there are a plethora of really amazing voice to text applications that no one really needs to type if they do not wish to.

Further we could just make recordings, upload them to any number of cloud based services and then simply link to our actual voices with all the timbre and intonation to covey what we mean better than most can type.

It further gives credibility to my feeling that most people are just very lazy. Hence the use of cathedral instead of using a more befitting term in this article.

 

[aspen]

Rooms in caves are often called cathedrals......wonder if they will be renamed

 

[Born_Again]

There are many terms used inappropriately by modern people.

Mainly because they do not really care what words actually mean or where they come from.

This is why many today do not even write proper English and use abbreviations or pictures to express themselves.

What truly confounds me is there are a plethora of really amazing voice to text applications that no one really needs to type if they do not wish to.

Further we could just make recordings, upload them to any number of cloud based services and then simply link to our actual voices with all the timbre and intonation to covey what we mean better than most can type.

It further gives credibility to my feeling that most people are just very lazy. Hence the use of cathedral instead of using a more befitting term in this article.

Everything you listed drives me crazy as well. Is it any wonder there are so many miscommunications in the world today between people? Think of instances where misinterpreted text messages or emails started disputes. The other day my son said I was "Cray Cray"........ Apparently that means crazy. Can you think of an instance where you had to correct someone on the context of a word because they didn't use its appropriate context? I digress.

 

[HammerStone]

I'm not sure I follow the distinction of using cathedral as being lazy because it's entirely in the semantical range of the word. If I say that a building looks like a cathedral, I mean that the building has more elaborate architecture than some other building or architectural style for comparison. That's still correct usage of the word, and it's probably a usage of the term that I've employed at some point in my life. I don't see how that's unreasonable.

And I am not sure it's just a matter of voice and video. I see people everyday at my job fail to communicate or convey the tone that they intend. I, for one, see it as much of a consequence as sin and our fallout of the Tower of Babel. You have cultural considerations at play as well. I've found that when I state something in my own dialect and language, folks from Australia or New Zealand will take my friendly tone as downright combative. We even speak the same language, more or less.

 

[pom2014]

Rooms in caves are often called cathedrals......wonder if they will be renamed

And Cathedral ceilings in housing.

BUT the context, again the issue with so MANY, is called into question.

Cathedral caves and ceilings calls into the context of using the word as a description, an adjective.

To say this possible holy site, as I use the word possible as it could be just a hall for governmental functions, as a cathedral is a misuse within context.

Ex. The Buddhist monks entered St. Peters and said what a lovely TEMPLE you have.

Needless to say many Catholics would be either bemused in the best possible way or outraged in the worst.

When dealing with fiery topics like creed, it would be best to use proper terms so as not to cause an uproar.

Or simply the article could have referred to the structure as "cathedral-like" in formation or appearance.