(September 5, 2012 at 4:23 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Last time I was in the UK, just for holding a door open for someone, they'd say "cheers". Yes, also for bye and I know of the beer ritual; I still remember a certain bar called Cheers on TV.
I used it in the sense of "let's drink to that"
In Portugal, tchau (our version of ciao, the sound is almost the same) is only used as 'bye', only in very informal environments.
The first is an example of the word as a synonym for "thanks, mate". I've never come across the word being used as a goodbye, not saying it's never used as such but it would be an affectation, not a mainstream derivation. I like the way you phrased the beer ritual, that's a perfect definition. I'll drink to that!
(September 5, 2012 at 4:23 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Back on topic... Dawkins is, to me, a bit too aggressive. I understand his point, but he exaggerates.
Live and let live. Parents are the caregivers, feeders and principle-givers for most children. It's natural that they will pass on their impression on the divine and whatever other topic they are passionate about.... my kids will know much more about nuclear fusion by the time they reach 10yo than I knew when I was 20!!
They'll also know they can think by themselves and choose not to believe in the country's major religion (catholic).... That's all they need. The nature of the teenage brain will handle the rest.
Not sure about exaggeration, so much. I appreciate that if you were to lay out every case of child-rearing in religious homes along a graph, those cases in which no mental scarring is caused as a direct consequence would in all probability match if not outstrip the cases of severe indoctrination-induced mental trauma; with the vast majority falling somewhere inbetween. Sadly, we'd still be left with those more severe cases which in all likelihood will go on to propogate their own indoctrination into subsequent generations - unless they grow out of it in their teen years, as you say.
This is somwhat of an extreme example - at least, I hope - but it is still an example nonetheless; unfortunately it is not an isolated example (why can't I stop saying example?). This demonstrates perfectly the sort of thing Prof Dawkins was tryind to address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPAaImd9Xc?rel=0
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
