Godless Tribe De-converts Christian (interview) 4 of 4

Daniel Everett on radio.author of Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Daniel
• Everett
• Noam
• Chomsky
• Brazilian
• rainforest
• Pirahã
• Christianity
• convert
• Steven
• Pinker
• linguist
• linguistics
• universal
• grammar
• psychologist
• Christian
• missionary
• deforestation
• JESUS
• Bible
• faith
• religion
• evangelical
• Atheism

[snaremop]

@Hypoguest All your examples of words that also include the suffix "-less" are in reference to body parts, which most people have all of at some point during their lives. The suffix "-less" does not mean "once had but now doesn't have", it means "without". I too am an atheist, but godless is a totally legitimate word; it means "without a god".

P.S. If you had listened to the interview in its entirety you would know that the Piraha tribe doesn't have gods (and is therefore, in fact, godless).

[Hypoguest]

what does ''godless' mean? For someone to be legless or headless or brainless would make sense because we know that people normally do have legs, a head and a brain......but we don't know there even are any gods. In fact all the objective evidence suggests that it is very unlikely. There is overwhelming evidence against the three Abrahamic god myths.....so I do wish that people wouldn't use the term ''godless''. It is actually meaningless.

Also, I suspect these tribal peoples have many gods.

[MARI0LAND]

Very interesting interview. Does anyone know when this new book he talks about (look: recursion!) will come out?

[Evolvedprimate]

In reality, which is unknown to the religious, every one is godless because there is no god

[TriNitroToluenoC4]

@Hypoguest Did you even listen to the whole thing?.. have you read the book?...

What they mean by godless is that they have no CONCEPT of a god, not that they don't have a god watching over them...

And how come you suspect they have gods if you said yourself that "all the objective evidence suggests that it is very unlikely (that there's a god)"...

[estebanosullivan]

@Hypoguest Suspecting that these people have many gos is really presumptuous. Are you basing this assumption soley on the fact that they're tribal or what?

What is generally meant by "godless" is a lack of the knowledge of or belief in god. God isin't something you possess such as a head or legs.

[DurexDurpaneu2]

Beautiful. And this also makes me angry to think that there are people out there that think they have the right to push their beliefs onto others.

[arpee9216]

@Hypoguest Well if you think saying "godless" is bad then what should we use? You do know that atheist means "without God", right?

[TheGreaterGood80]

Great interview. Everett probably has one of the most interesting "go native" stories in anthropology or linguistics.

One thing I find astonishing is how the All Knowing Mr. Chomsky, who is worshiped around the world, is incredibly childish and rude to Everett because of his theories.