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KneeJERK reaction "GODSDAMMIT"
12 years ago
KneeJERK topic of the week is brought to you by:
People who say "gods" in expressions. particularly as a replacement of the more familiar "god". This is commonly heard in furry social circles
Example: "Gods I hate you." Instead of "God I hate you."
Reaction: I cringe.
This may sound like a conservative complaint, but I assure you it is not in defense of monotheism.
To clarify, for the past 8 - 9 years, I've leaned toward atheism. More specifically, I've leaned toward a fully scientific mindset. Spirits, supernatural abilities/events, and alternative medicine has for the most part, retained very little credibility for me. I don't lean this way to feel superior, or to look down upon those who do carry a spiritual mindset. This has more to do with rejecting concepts that no longer work into my sense of logic. I come from a very Christian upbringing only to realize I've been battling with cognitive dissonance most of my life. There was something wrong with the God concept in my mind, and in order to cope, I would aggressively stand with what I was raised with. It was a cycle of self deluding exercises and it costed quite a bit of my mental energy in order to remain steadfast. It became quite an effort to run around and ignore logical questions, answers, and theories. But all of that changed when I began to pay attention to these conflicts. In the end, religion and spirituality began to fall apart.
Neuroscience embarks on the journey to explain the soul. There's much to learn, and so much we do not know. But that makes life more interesting for me. Science reveals more beauty and ongoing mystery in the universe than spirituality ever could for me. Living my life with a huge question mark instead of an exclamation simply feels... appropriate? Logical? ...dare I say... worthy?
When I hear "Gods damn it" . I cannot help but cringe. Though it is judgmental and somewhat automatic reaction.
What might bug me is the air of rebellion that I am unable to separate from this gesture. Don't get me wrong. Rebellion can be a wonderful thing, as long as it doesn't become pretentious or masturbatory. At a certain point, it just feels forced and childish. And I know I am probably wrong for that broad brush-stroke assumption too. But it's something that happens either way, so why not put it out there?
I am fully aware that some people are raised with polytheism. This is not directed toward those people.
This is particularly about those who say "gods" in their everyday conversations as though it's some kind of attribute to being a furry.
I stand strongly with free speech. Anyone should say "gods" if they want to. Even if I don't like it. This post is simply expressing that it bugs me, and trying to understand why.
I do not want to start flame wars, but I am interested in learning more about how others feel.
Inflammatory comments are fine as long as their negativity is directed at me. No fighting bickering or squabbling among each other, okay? We're adults.
People who say "gods" in expressions. particularly as a replacement of the more familiar "god". This is commonly heard in furry social circles
Example: "Gods I hate you." Instead of "God I hate you."
Reaction: I cringe.
This may sound like a conservative complaint, but I assure you it is not in defense of monotheism.
To clarify, for the past 8 - 9 years, I've leaned toward atheism. More specifically, I've leaned toward a fully scientific mindset. Spirits, supernatural abilities/events, and alternative medicine has for the most part, retained very little credibility for me. I don't lean this way to feel superior, or to look down upon those who do carry a spiritual mindset. This has more to do with rejecting concepts that no longer work into my sense of logic. I come from a very Christian upbringing only to realize I've been battling with cognitive dissonance most of my life. There was something wrong with the God concept in my mind, and in order to cope, I would aggressively stand with what I was raised with. It was a cycle of self deluding exercises and it costed quite a bit of my mental energy in order to remain steadfast. It became quite an effort to run around and ignore logical questions, answers, and theories. But all of that changed when I began to pay attention to these conflicts. In the end, religion and spirituality began to fall apart.
Neuroscience embarks on the journey to explain the soul. There's much to learn, and so much we do not know. But that makes life more interesting for me. Science reveals more beauty and ongoing mystery in the universe than spirituality ever could for me. Living my life with a huge question mark instead of an exclamation simply feels... appropriate? Logical? ...dare I say... worthy?
When I hear "Gods damn it" . I cannot help but cringe. Though it is judgmental and somewhat automatic reaction.
What might bug me is the air of rebellion that I am unable to separate from this gesture. Don't get me wrong. Rebellion can be a wonderful thing, as long as it doesn't become pretentious or masturbatory. At a certain point, it just feels forced and childish. And I know I am probably wrong for that broad brush-stroke assumption too. But it's something that happens either way, so why not put it out there?
I am fully aware that some people are raised with polytheism. This is not directed toward those people.
This is particularly about those who say "gods" in their everyday conversations as though it's some kind of attribute to being a furry.
I stand strongly with free speech. Anyone should say "gods" if they want to. Even if I don't like it. This post is simply expressing that it bugs me, and trying to understand why.
I do not want to start flame wars, but I am interested in learning more about how others feel.
Inflammatory comments are fine as long as their negativity is directed at me. No fighting bickering or squabbling among each other, okay? We're adults.
It's all subconscious, really, in my case, and I don't typically pay the slightest bit of attention to which version I use until after it's out of my mouth U:
Thanks for your input.
Similar to someone realizing they're gay, and "suddenly" speaking with a lisp as though it's a identity requirement, or in an attempt to push away what came before. xD I see "why" but that sort of thing still just bugs the hell outta me.
I don't find minority religious beliefs to be problematic anyway. They are impotent and hold no sway over how anybody leads their lives. That's the way all religions should be.
Its the big religions. The ones with the billion+ flocks of followers that I hold my ire with as they do push me and others around regarding how to lead our lives.
Back to the furries saying "gods" thing. It seems quite harmless to me.
It is very harmless, like you say. But that doesn't stop it from coming off as obnoxious for me.
Although I am tolerant to a possible extreme. When somebody says something I disagree with in real life, which is quite often, I do my best to ignore.
It's all down to context for me, I've seen people using 'gods' in such a way that draws attention to the fact they are using it. A similar one I have come across is referring to the (one) god as 'she'. That context to me is purely antagonistic and that's when it annoys me.
Then there's furries in fiction who do this, because frankly polytheism makes much more sense in most furry worlds. Granted, furries who carry this over to reality seem to be missing the point.
Then there's people who use Battlestar Galactica speak. Usually if they include a 'frak' here and there it's obvious.
The fact that they are so rarely used (along with other gender neutral pronouns) tends to contribute to this sense of 'wrong' people feel about them so I can under stand the senitment.
Random fact though. They weren't even meant for what furries do with em. IIRC, it was a primarily feminist thing, because they wanted equality in the most insignificant of shit. Now, what with the large number of people with gender dysphoria, it's for catching on with transgenders.
Gods I hate words. (See what I did there?)
But one time I heard someone use the word 'shim' in a mocking sense and I just fucking lost it. I laughed so hard I cried.
I'm not always successful, but I try. Hoping to make progress on that front.
Still, I don't begrudge anyone that wants to say gods, it seems to be a fairly petty thing to take issue with in my view.
...Or so I tend to hope. Some folks really are that empty.
The core belief in the three abrahamic religions (christianity, judaism, and islam) is that there is only one true god. So, by saying gods instead of god, it can be readily implied that I am not a believer in any of those three religions. That way, I don't have to change my daily speech into absurd ways (like saying gads instead of god, or other silly variations) and still keep it mostly the same way as it's always been. It's the same as saying "god" just without the implied association to any of the dominant monotheistic religions.
And to answer the comment immediately above me that swears this change in speech is a passive insult: Clearly you don't believe in freedom of speech, or even freedom from religion.
And though "gods" may feel like such a tiny negligible change from "god" in casual speech, it's hard not to admit it does sound a bit "trying too hardy" for a lot of folks out there. Kind of like those pony fans insisting on putting pony lingo in their conversation. It just comes off as very forced... and kind of obnoxious. Not to mention, it reeks of being an attempt to make a statement, which is kind of annoying when you're really not in the mood for statements to be made at you.
on the one hand, who the fuck cares right? but a large side of me finds it very cringe worthy.
I do get what you're saying with the rejection of the monotheism. It could be seen as a kind of an almost sarcastic poke at the whole god concept , especially if you're an atheist. Although the implication can exist, I would go as far as to claim that more out there would automatically assume you to be a polytheist. Not that it would really matter in most cases.... though I imagine it must be aggravating to realize someone in your daily life had assumed you were some kind of holistic medicine using, tree hugging, pseudo science believing, crystal collecting spiritualist when as an agnostic/atheist with a scientific outlook, I tend to find all these things to be a waste of time and energy when much more important scientific progress could be made with that enthusiasm instead.
As for polytheism, I have always thought that sooner or later there will be a furry religion; Someone is going to write down a common framework of ideas and core beliefs, write a few texts that will be "sacred", along with the adoption of holy symbols and rituals, then designate spiritual leaders to serve in the manner of priests/pastors, and voila. And with furries being furries, I'm pretty sure its going to be a polytheist religion (to say nothing of what will inevitably be written about what the furry gods do to each other in private...) It's not hard to start a new religion, I mean, if that ron hubbard guy (scientology) or those swedish software pirates (kopimism) did it, why can't furries? :P
As for obnoxiousness in written communication, I guess you could in a way take solace in the fact that gods is an actual word. I do cringe with many actual mistakes, like "hoarse" instead of horse, or "your" instead of you're.
furry religion though.... Man, I think that would give me a stroke...from cringing so hard.
unrelated but also related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yTehNskFvU
All silliness aside, however, I agree. Now, we're probably all gonna argue about this thing, about how many, if there ARE any, gods there are in existence. One, two, many, none; hell, maybe it's all of the above for all I know. It all depends on the believer.
One god assumes there is one guy up there who does right and wrong. Two or more imply there's some completely good, some completely bad, all there. None explains why Earth can go to Hell and nothing's done about it. All of the above...Explain it as you will.
Me, personally? I'm Christian, and therefore mono. HOWEVER, I believe that after we killed his son, God flipped us off and left us alone, which is roughly the same as having no god at all. Circumstances change, and gods may decide "Y'know what? Screw this, I'm going back to playing The Sims. Least they don't complain about me."
New religions could very well crop up. For example, I mentioned Greek gods in passing. There are also Roman gods, Norse gods, Babylonian, Egyptian! I'm convinced, too, that some bright bulb in the brony fandom will create Celestianity and Lunatherism (I may pop in for the sun sandwiches and Moon Pie. And stay for the sing-a-long.). Point is, there's no set 'one' god, any more than there are 'one' good video game console or 'one' method of removing a corpse--er, dry cleaning.
(Inhales.) Alright...rant over. I'm done.