OT: language origin and creationism (UNCLASSIFIED)

Robin Hamilton robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM
Thu Apr 1 23:51:35 UTC 2010


I suspect John Donne might disagree with the OED definition (or be reading
Isaiah  differently):  "At the round earth's imagined corners blow / Your
trumpet, angel, and arise, arise you numberless infinities / Of souls."

(I'm [mis]quoting from memory -- one of the Holy Sonnets.)

Robin

> As OED explains, "corner" doesn't mean "corner." It means "a direction or
> quarter from which the wind blows."
>
> So Isaiah is not implying that the earth has corners.
>
> He is merely being Holy-Land-centric.
>
> And what, a religionist might ask, is so wrong with that?
>
> JL
> On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 12:43 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
> Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>> Subject:      Re: OT: language origin and creationism (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> Caveats: NONE
>>
>> >
>> >
>> > A question: how do the bible literalists deal with the evidence that
>> > the earth may in fact not have four corners?
>> >
>> > GAT

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