Catholics vs. Hitler

[vhawk01]

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Obviously if a dictionary says a word means something it isn't true. Whatever YOU believe is right and everyone else is wrong.

Others foolish believe that words have meaning. You know better.

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The dictionary definitions didn't help your case. You made a jump from an organization being made up of people who work towards a goal and the idea that it is the organization and not the people who are acting.

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And a baseball team doesn't win a game. The people playing win it. My company doesn't put out a product, the people do it. A church doesn't teach, its people do. You're so right.

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Now you're starting to get it. I know it's probably tough since we're used to referring to organizations as acting.

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I think it would be helpful when you have discussions that you define what words and ideas mean in your world so that people realize using the reference point that everyone else has is meaningless when conversing with you. It would probably save people a lot of time.

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I'm not redefining anything. I'm just not using the shorthand we sometimes get used to saying when we refer to action by large groups of people. When we talk about "action" only actual, animate objects can perform them. An organization is essentially an abstraction. It is inanimate and therefore cannot act. People within organizations act. Is this really so hard to grasp?

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I love semantical debates, but this is an exceptionally meaningless one. In some usages of the word 'act,' you are obviously correct. But those are NOT the usages people have in mind when they say things like "The Yankees won today." They mean the group of people who all share the common property of being 'Yankees' accomplished a victory. So, when we say the Church did something, we mean that the group of people who share the property of being a part of the Church did that thing. No one really thinks an abstract concept tightened up its laces and went to work. Seriously, you seem to be intentionally refusing to understand words in their common context.