Thursday, September 4, 2008

A Definition of Terms

"The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms." -- Socrates
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." -- "God"

In order to fully understand what I'm talking about, it would help to define some terms, as I understand them. When I use the following terms in any of my posts, I am referring to them in the context illustrated below.

Atheist
One who does not believe in God or gods.

Conservatism
A political philosophy that highly values the cultural tradition of a nation, even placing it over the individual rights and welfare of its citizens.

God

A being who is believed to possess all of the following characteristics.
  1. Is the creator of Life, the Universe, and Everything
  2. Omnipotence
  3. Omnipresence
  4. Omniscience
  5. Is worshipped by members of the Abrahamic religions
Gods (of the lowercase variety)
Beings who are believed to possess all of the following characteristics.
  1. Magical powers
  2. Innate superiority to mankind
Liberalism
The philosophy of social liberalism -- a political philosophy that focuses on individual rights and equal opportunities. The liberal philosophy has a focus on improving the nation by improving the education and health of its citizens, while also supporting the concepts of free enterprise and entrepreneurship.

Secular
Something in which religion, or lack thereof, is not a critical factor.

Sky Daddy

See God, above.

Theist
One who does believe in God or in gods.

Utilitarianism
A secular philosophy where the moral value of an action can be determined by whether it brings greater happiness than it inflicts harm. Most people use utilitarianism to guide their own personal actions every day. On a societal or governmental level, however, this is subject to much deliberation, discussion, and debate, and thus requires an open democratic government with an educated citizenry.

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