English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

I believe in the existence of supernatural beings called gods, but there is no creator God. One of these gods thought he created the universe though he did not. This theory explains Christianity, Buddhism and atheism all at once.

Mahnax

I see.

user19161

It is hinted at in the Brahmajala Sutta in Theravada Buddhism.

Mahnax

5:23 AM

So what is the origin of the universe, per your beliefs?

user19161

I subscribe to the Big Bounce theory.

user19161

This is one of the scientific possibilities, how the universe contracts and expands.

user19161

The expansion is the Big Bang.

Mahnax

Interesting.

user19161

In this theory, the cycle goes on forever.

user19161

5:24 AM

We are currently in one of the infinitely many expansion phases.

Cerberus

@WillHunting It sounds like Hinduism or older polytheism.

user19161

Again, this is hinted at in the same Sutta.

user19161

In fact even the Koran talks about the universe in this way.

user19161

So if you read science, religion and philosophy all at once, you will see that what I said above is not to be dismissed so easily.

user19161

In the quest for truth, what is real may be unreal, and what is unreal may be real. We must keep an open mind.

Mahnax

5:30 AM

My mind is open.

Cerberus

5:47 AM

@WillHunting But I would prefer to "believe" texts or people who apply rigorous, rational methods that I approve of.

Mahnax

^^^^

Cerberus

Because there is an endless number of texts and people who have stated hypotheses about these matters.

One must make choices.

KitFox

11:37 AM

@Mahnax If my logical inferences are correct, welcome to the club.

user19161

12:59 PM

@KitFox Erm, is there anything to infer? Isn't it obvious? :-)

Robusto

2:04 PM

If "we must keep an open mind" why would anyone "subscribe to" a theory that cannot be proven one way or another?

cornbread ninja

2:35 PM

@Mahnax noooooooo. If it's any consolation, I picked up four now-bigger-size bags of flamin' hot cheetos last night.

Mahnax

@KitFox Thanks :-)

@cornbreadninja It is.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax :D

I can get more or not send that many; that was just how many I ran into at the time.

Mahnax

I've just e-mailed you, because I have a slight problem.

cornbread ninja

2:56 PM

Certainly.

Mahnax

OK.

cornbread ninja

They carry a date of October 23rd, so they'll keep a while. :)

!!!

Mahnax

BRB.

sighs

We're having a small hurricane-like thing.

cornbread ninja

3:11 PM

0_0

a nor'wester?

Sorry; I was trying to get the cat to go outside to be brushed, and then cleaning my desk area.

We had two days of rain from the Isaac thing.

Mahnax

Aww, you have a cat too?

No fair.

Cats are great.

cornbread ninja

:(

I can send you the cat, too.

Mahnax

No, no. That would be cruel, and I'm allergic.

cornbread ninja

Nooooooo! I'm sorry to hear that. :(

Mahnax

Me too. One day I will own a cat anyways—I love them too much to care.

tchrist

3:14 PM

You will eventually desensitize then, at least to your own cat.

There’s a lot of room for a really funny answer here:

0

Q: In which situations is acceptable to use latin phrases?

I was wondering if there is a norm to cite latin phrases; I've heard that it is valid when you need/want to abbreviate a text.

latin

cornbread ninja

@tchrist that's what happened to my initials friend.

Dude would sneeze at my place all the time, and one day just got a cat and said he got used to it.

Time to get ready to catch Panera breakfast!

Mahnax

Panera?

tchrist

It’s a bistro chain.

Mahnax

Oh, I see.

I'm off, bye!

Cerberus

3:33 PM

Hello.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax bye!

tchrist

The best I could do in the short space after Reg closed it:

In re writing in Latin vs. writing in English, the best policy is to use no Latin at all. Unless you’re a physician writing out a prescription, and maybe even then, write out your common abbreviations — viz., i.e., e.g., & etc. — in English. In academic circles it is common to use abbreviations like ibid., et al., and op. cit., but for normal writing, avoid things like v.s. and v.i. and such like the plague that they are. Adding a random Latin phrase doesn’t make you ipso facto erudite so much as a twit. Remember: male dictum interpretando facias acrius. — tchrist 47 secs ago

Robusto

0

Q: Perform magic to children vs perform magic for children

I've noticed that there seems to be a usage of "to" where I expect "for" in certain dialects of English. The one that caught my eye today was a Reddit submission where the OP used the title "Why you don't perform magic to small children". Thinking about it, there seems to be something to the usa...

word-choice grammar idioms

May 14 at 14:36, by Robusto

tchrist

3:57 PM

@Robusto There’s a bug in your widget: it seems to be radio buttons, but I want to select more than one.

Robusto

feature-request

tchrist

4:24 PM

I hate Google. It tries to correct my irrepentant to unrepentant, my blisslessly to blissfully.

cornbread ninja

5:33 PM

@tchrist jerks.

tchrist

Yes, because I was searching for a particular sentence of mine that uses those words, and it won’t find it without them.

That reminds me of how I despite diligent and even prayer-filled
attempts to rid myself of such traumatic experiences to this very day
still recall in dreams sleeping and waking those interminably long and
bleary-eyed nights sequestered chez Larry in Mountain View this past
July during which I would cobble together tortuous monstrosities of
innumerable clauses and moods and styles and dubious-at-best antecedents
bereft of periods or even semi-colons, chthonic monstrosities long since
banished to the nethermost depths of RCS purgatory whence they cry out

Meysam

5:47 PM

"off of something"

cornbread ninja

@tchrist nice.

tchrist

@Robusto Here’s an answer to an old question you pestered me about in chat:

0

A: Is the word “formulæ” valid English?

Are there any other examples of English words that contain letters not found in the standard English alphabet? If for “English words”, one counts terms that appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, then yes, there are a very great many such words. Here are just a few examples of the sorts y...