Random

I miss Fred MacMurray. And I want to watch The Absent Minded Professor again.

Questions that beg the question

First a word about "superstition."

From Dictionary.com

su·per·sti·tion
   [soo-per-stish-uhn] Show IPA
noun
1. a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
2. a system or collection of such beliefs.
3. a custom or act based on such a belief.
4. irrational fear of what is unknown or mysterious, especially in connection with religion.
5. any blindly accepted belief or notion.


If one has a superstition and then discovers that it is a superstition, it stops being a superstition.

That said, many questions that beg the question involve someone's superstition. My favorite, at the moment, is "Do you believe in God?" By the language, the existence of God is deemed true. It is a trick question in which the questioner is attempting to enroll the questioned in a superstition that God exists.

I suppose that the questioner might be asking, "God exists, do you believe it?" Or, "Do you believe in my God rather than some other God?" It might be, "Do you believe in the teachings of my religion about the God that exists and is the one true God?"

I interpret "Do you believe in God?" as "Do you believe in the existence of a supernatural entity?" I don't think folks who believe in the existence of a supernatural entity who ask "Do you believe in God?" agree with my interpretation. The believers are living in the context of their superstition and cannot entertain the thought that "God" is just one of their superstitions.

Just saying...

24, post 3

Finished the 2nd season.

I just don't know WHY I finished the 2nd season. The writing WAS really, really bad.