Silly Religious Question

[Yahweh]

Sometimes I hear people talk about Angels and how they save people from burning buildings, or talk to them, or show them the way out of a forest in the middle of the night. What would happen to the credibility of these stories if at every instance of the word "Angel" you replaced it with the word "Pixie"? Why wouldnt a rose by any othere name smell as sweet?

Thinking about it some more... what would happen to the credibility of scientists like Stephen Hawking if instead of using words like "wormhole" they chose a cuter animal and instead called them "bunnyholes"? It would probably have the same effect on people as if yelling the word "NOT" after every scientific statement you make.

I'm being more or less completely serious, what would happen if you replaced the word "Angel" with "Pixie"?

[TylerD]

Originally posted by Yahweh
I'm being more or less completely serious, what would happen if you replaced the word "Angel" with "Pixie"?

It wouldn't make any real difference to those with common sense (which is a minomer, as it really isn't so common).

[Yahweh]

I believe that the fact that saying something like "I believe in Pixies" is something so unfamiliar that people might think that your a little borderline schizo. I'm sorry if I seem a little less than serious when I asked the question... its just funny to me for some reason. "I believe Pixies help peope out who are having a hard time in life at certain times. Everyone has their own Pixie who looks after them and watches over them. Pixies are often very beautiful." Assuming you left out some obviously Angelic features (such as wings, a halo, harp, and other things associated with Angels) peopel will come to think that you really believe in Pixies. And that is so uncommon that it would only be a matter of time before you have to explain to a psychiatrist about your bizarre unnatural belief in Pixies.

[Darwin]

A good point.
I´ve thought about something similar.

It is completely normal,or considered such to hint at God,Angel or whatever,these names and what we associate them with are deep in our culture and minds.
I believe some might consider it offensive to them to burst out "Yeah,and I believe in Zenglabyn,divine hamster like human mole who observes us".
It would be smiled at but if it had been rooted as deep,it might be just as normal.
It may also be a point of some importance that creatures such as angels seem to be displayed as very humanly (if "above humans") just like God(s) being referred to as "father" and "he" which clearly reminds you of a man.
I´m yet to solve this fascinating puzzle.

[QuarkChild]

As an atheist, I find angels to be a pretty naive concept, but they make such nice subjects for paintings. I saw this amazing professional painting of an angel once (probably something famous from the Renaissance era), but like an idiot I didn't record the title, and I've never seen it since. It was an angel with huge, beautiful wings, reclining on stone steps. That's all I remember about it, but I've tried to replicate the mental image that I have of it several times, without success.:(

My avatar is a close-up of an angel:
angel (http://deva.ponart.com/pictures/angel.jpg)

[QuarkChild]

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[Upchurch]

Originally posted by TylerD


It wouldn't make any real difference to those with common sense (which is a minomer, as it really isn't so common). it's a small point but I would argue that it's the other word that is the misnomer. It's very common, but isn't so sensible.

[Dancing David]

Truely a study of angels can lead one to believe that they are little different from demons or Pixies. Otherwise Big Yah wouldn't have had to tell them to stop having sex with humans.