Giliell
New Member
Following the news on the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, I stunbled upon an American article that criticised the language used by the media: sauce.
They especially criticised the German media and two Germans, a politician (who's an idiot, btw) and an expert on radiation. And I was wondering: What's the fuzz?
Then I realised: The Americans thought we were like them, taking religion and christianity that serious. Which we don't.
So if Öttinger says that the pictures from Japan are "apocalyptical", he doesn't say and nobody here understands him to say: "The end is near, repent, god will shut down project earth soon". He means: Those pictures are really shocking and the news from the nuclear plant are very disturbing.
And if the expert says "well, then we can only pray", he doesn't mean: Maybe if we pray enough god will fix the damn thing and make a miracle happen. What is generally understood is: Then we can do nothing but hope, it means that things are out of control.
I don't know that much about the other European countries, but at least here we use religious language as metaphor all the time. It is in fact so common that the phrase survives while the religious knowledge has died (I often challenge people who claim to be christians to explain to me who Onan was and why a message for Iob is something bad. The usually end up being schooled on their own beliefs by me).
I use religious metaphors, swearing and sayings all day. Nobody would believe that I mean it seriously or takes offense at this.
Any input from the other Europeans?
They especially criticised the German media and two Germans, a politician (who's an idiot, btw) and an expert on radiation. And I was wondering: What's the fuzz?
Then I realised: The Americans thought we were like them, taking religion and christianity that serious. Which we don't.
So if Öttinger says that the pictures from Japan are "apocalyptical", he doesn't say and nobody here understands him to say: "The end is near, repent, god will shut down project earth soon". He means: Those pictures are really shocking and the news from the nuclear plant are very disturbing.
And if the expert says "well, then we can only pray", he doesn't mean: Maybe if we pray enough god will fix the damn thing and make a miracle happen. What is generally understood is: Then we can do nothing but hope, it means that things are out of control.
I don't know that much about the other European countries, but at least here we use religious language as metaphor all the time. It is in fact so common that the phrase survives while the religious knowledge has died (I often challenge people who claim to be christians to explain to me who Onan was and why a message for Iob is something bad. The usually end up being schooled on their own beliefs by me).
I use religious metaphors, swearing and sayings all day. Nobody would believe that I mean it seriously or takes offense at this.
Any input from the other Europeans?