ists, isms and ologies- oh my! on 'belief'

The most pernicious statement I can imagine is this.
"God- do you believe he exists?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/12/religion-christianity-belief-science

It was during the late 17th century, as the western conception of truth became more notional, that the word "belief" changed its meaning. Previously, bileve meant "love, loyalty, commitment". It was related to the Latin libido and used in the King James Bible to translate the Greek pistis ("trust; faithfulness; involvement"). In demanding pistis, therefore, Jesus was asking for commitment not credulity: people must give everything to the poor, follow him to the end, and commit totally to the coming Kingdom.

"Traduttore, tradittore" or “Translator, traitor”.

D: nearly as fun as watching the march of 'son of god' (sons?) through aramaic, greek, latin, middle English 'n Modern English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_God

In the Hebrew Bible the phrase "sons of God" occurs:

* Gen 6:2 b'ney ha-Elohim (בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים) sons of the God.
* Job 1:6 b'ney ha-Elohim (בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים) sons of the God.
* Job 38:7 b'ney elohiym (בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִֽים) without the definite article - sons of gods.[1]
* Psalm 29:1 b'ney elim (בְּנֵי אֵלִים ) without the definite article - sons of elim.


The 2nd century BC Book of Enoch turns the "sons of God" into fallen angels, referred to as Watchers, who came to earth and had children with human women, resulting in a race of half-angel, half-human beings known as the "Giants" (Nephilim).[citation needed] The view is found in Philo[14] and in Josephus Antiquities 1:73 (or 1:3.1).[15]

D: or perhaps socially powerful men, depending on the translation.

Point is, folks are happy to squabble over these points. In fact, to some it seems reasonable to resort to bloodshed.

Here we see translations through a series of natural languages that were never intended to be accurate repository languages.

I can find other examples, but you see the point.

A language that is designed to be accurate and flexible, as espoused by Sapir, can lick this.

It does not exist in nature.
It must be designed.

D - Aside- am halfway through learning the basic Esperanto langauge. My room-mate suspects I may have developed Tourette's Syndrome, given how much I swear about it. There is no limit to the nasty things I can say about it. Z was a highly motivated amateur- emphasis on AMATEUR.
Thanks GOD the French vetoed it with the League of Nations.
Who knew I'd ever thank the French for anything!

My FB entry today.
'What Europe needs most is about fifty more dead languages', said a sagacious observer at the outbreak of the the Great War. 'What the world needs is 200 more dead artificial languages- and one more'. (ME)