aldenswan.com

Quixote tipped me off to the new site, Disbeliefnet.com. You probably know all about Beliefnet, one of the oldest faith-oriented sites around. Beliefnet is all about faith of all stripes and tolerance of anything related to faith, providing a place where people with even crazy beliefs can find acceptance and dialog with one another.  It strikes me as a site for spiritual wimps.  Disbeliefnet, on the other hand, is a site dedicated to ridiculing any kind of weird belief that exists, and some that aren’t quite so weird. It’s a perfect complement to Beliefnet, providing a place for non-spiritual wimps to hang out. However, I think it is evidence of a new trend, a sign that a pendulum somewhere is perhaps beginning its back stroke.

Another bit of news that Quixote passed along is also advertised on Disbeliefnet: Bill Maher, the ex-host of Politically Incorrect, has jumped on the documentary bandwagon. His film Religulous, to be released on October 3rd, also ridicules the things that people believe in. Click on the link and you can see a pretty cool trailer.  Maher must have a lot of faith in his followers, as he’s got a film targeted at a very, very small audience, if you believe any of the poll data. Unless, of course, he’s hoping it will attract everyone, because we all - except perhaps for some of the beliefnet wimps - like to laugh at other people’s weird beliefs.

It’s true - I’ve laughed at things that you probably believe for years.  I’ve been known to make fun of Jim Dobson, TV preachers like Robert Tilton (who hasn’t?) and that lady with the pink hair. I’ve laughed at Pat Robertson, I’ve laughed at the Fool on the Hill, and I’ve laughed at people who believe they reincarnate into cows.  I also laugh at people who don’t believe anything, like Buddhists and atheists.  Laughter is what happens when your brain doesn’t know what to do with a particular bit of information that we’re trying to assimilate. And, medical research shows that its good for us to laugh, so we have some scientific basis for it.

But, let me tell you what Disbeliefnet and Religulous signify: they are signs that there is a change in the wind, that we are now entering a post-tolerance age.  That’s right, post-tolerance.  For the last few years, we’ve had liberals stuffing tolerance down our throats, and obviously, we’re tired of it.  People have become so afraid of offending anyone that they can only make fun of themselves. What fun is that?  We’re still allowed to ridicule public figures, of course, which helps a bit. Then there’s the Minority Rule, which says that if you’re a recognized minority, you can make fun of the majority, but they can’t make fun of you. I mean, get real. There’s more of us, so explain to me why we can’t make fun of minorities?

But, apparently it’s now fair game to make fun of anyone.  It was essental, of course, that this trend began with liberals, seeing as how the tolerance movement also came from the left.  The gauche have criticized those on the right all along for being intolerant, so for conservatives to be intolerant is no big deal. But, now that the left has come out in support of intolerance, it’s a different story.

Wow.  What freedom! Freedom of speech returns!  Stay tuned for more post-tolerance posts in the days to come.

I am in the middle of reading Bishop N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope, which deals with the doctrine of Heaven and what Wright calls “life after life after death.”  It’s blowing the minds of some evangelicals who don’t like being told that Heaven isn’t necessarily the goal.

I was quite surprised to hear that Bishop Wright was interviewed last week on The Colbert Report, a somewhat dangerous place for nearly anyone in which to find themselves.  In the interview, Wright dialogues with Colbert about Heaven, dogma and other fun stuff.  Check it out, Wright is on about the 13:30 mark. (And, Cookie Monster is a surprise guest earlier in the show!)

I should start by clarifying that this post is not about the song by Neil Young (a very good song, by the way) or the song by the Bee Gees (an okay, but not great song).  Just in case you wondered.

For some reason I subscribed a few years ago to Dictionary.com’s “Word of the Day” service, which means that every day I get an e-mail from Doctor Dictionary giving me the definition of some word that I may never use. I enjoy them, anyway.  I also subscribe to a Theological Word of the Day, which I find even more interesting. But, this post isn’t about that.

Today’s Dictionary word was the transitive verb, “defenestrate.”  I know that it’s a transitive verb because the e-mail told me. However, I would not have ever guessed what the word means.  I do know, however, what “fenestration” means, which added to the problem. Fenestration, which is a noun, refers to the design of windows. I know this because my job once required me to know alot about windows, and I worked with an architect who specialized in windows who used the word in his company name.  It’s kind of a cool word, fun to say, but it’s not something that most people have opportunity to use that often.

Fenestrate is a bit more odd in that it is an adjective that looks like it should be a transitive verb.  Most people say “fenestrated,” but apparently it’s also appropriate to say something like, “that wall is lined with fenestrate openings.”  It is derived from the Latin word fenestra, which by now you probably could guess means “window.”

Which brings us to “defenestrate.”  I typically think of the prefix “de-” as meaning to undo, as in, “I need to defrost the refrigerator,” or “he was rather decomposed.” However, it doesn’t always mean “undo;” I read (on Dictionary.com) that in Latin, it typically means “down.”  That still doesn’t explain “denude,” which does not mean to put clothes on. But, that’s grist for another mill.

Putting the prefix “de” in front of “fenestrate,” knowing what we do about “de,” could mean just about anything, including to remove fenestrated openings, to close a window (the “down” definition), or as is used in denude, to simply be a window. I should mention here that denuding in front of a fenestrated wall is not typically a good idea, unless you’re an exhibitionist.

By now, you’ve probably looked the word up already and stopped reading this very interesting post. But for those of you who have stuck it out, here’s the real definition: defenstrate means “to throw out of a window,” as in, “the bouncer defenestrated the drunken reveler.”

Words. Don’t you just love them?