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Head Scratcher

#1
Zinjanthropos Offline
Topsy Gift is a young gospel singer who according to her FB page was created and formed by God to impact lives through her music.

I found this quote from her: 
Quote:“Truth is hidden only to the masses who are not inquisitive”

Maybe the context of why she said this is missing but could it be directed at an atheist audience? How much more inquisitiveness is required for a theist when they have God? What's to be curious about God anyway? I mean do theists only use God to find hidden truths, about what? Is this a GOD DID IT or GOD JUST IS statement? Perhaps she's intimating that God's done all this stuff and there's a need to find out how it was done.

Or is it just some fancy word play designed to bedazzle her faithful? No mention of the individual. If you want the hidden truth, whatever that is, then join a mob and ask (whom do you ask)? The throng that doesn't inquire are what (atheists?). I mean an atheist could say same thing, what might the reaction of theists be?
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#2
Syne Offline
I would assume the quote refers to atheists or otherwise wholly secular people. It doesn't actually take much curiosity to just accept everything scientists/authorities/experts tell you. It takes a bit more to understand the science yourself. It takes quite a bit more than that to delve into philosophy and metaphysics, where there are few definite answers and you have to decide what you think for yourself...unless you abdicate that much through agnosticism, in which case such things are likely pointless. And beyond that is god, spirituality, transcendence, etc..

People come to their own terms with god and its nature, much like they find their own view of philosophy. There is a rich intellectual history into the nature and possible justification of god. Also much like having a specific philosophical view, it informs everything else...including how people view things like science (like how the natural/early scientists assumed that nature was orderly enough to decipher due to it being designed by a creator).

Science is not hidden; it can be learned at any web connection, library, or school. And it takes zero curiosity to just believe arguments people convince you are the simplest answers...for simple people. Contrast that with a ubiquitous secular culture (internet, news, movies, etc.) that is, at best, indifferent, if not ridiculing or hostile, to religion.

But there can also be a difference between some raised in religion, where they may not have ever suffered enough to question it, and those either returned, after being disillusioned, or converted latter in life. People who have lived easy lives have little reason to question how they were raised, be it religious or secular. A good question would be how often those people become curious enough to question things.
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#3
C C Offline
(Oct 14, 2018 11:54 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [...] Maybe the context of why she said this is missing but could it be directed at an atheist audience? [...] Or is it just some fancy word play designed to bedazzle her faithful?


There seems to be only one selection on her quotes page (at goodreads) that overtly references religion; and even that's just because it's got "pray for them" mentioned in it. So I have no idea if the "The truth is hidden..." one means something specific, as opposed to being just another general Truth platitude / bromide that numerous groups could identify with. ("The truth is out there" X-Files conspiracy folk, for instance.) No source is given for the rest of the quotes, either, beyond their own content and the attribution to Topsy Gift.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/...Topsy_Gift

~
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#4
Magical Realist Offline
I get all my quotes from Goodreads. I post them on Facebook and here.
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#5
RainbowUnicorn Offline
is she a gender stereo type role model for little christian girls
cleanly wiped down and sanatised for good parents to be ok with their little angels following and mimicking ?
and for all good parents to praise with "isnt she pretty" for agreement infront of their little boys...


most of the young gospely type christian singers are just gender stereo type models to sexually template for other good parents.
i find it a bit of a depravity.
freedom of the mind is not for everyone, more soo for those who have never been offered the oppotunity.

i dont do facebook so not about to have a look
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#6
Zinjanthropos Offline
(Oct 16, 2018 08:34 AM)RainbowUnicorn Wrote: is she a gender stereo type role model for little christian girls
cleanly wiped down and sanatised for good parents to be ok with their little angels following and mimicking ?
and for all good parents to praise with "isnt she pretty" for agreement infront of their little boys...


most of the young gospely type christian singers are just gender stereo type models to sexually template for other good parents.
i find it a bit of a depravity.
freedom of the mind is not for everyone, more soo for those who have never been offered the oppotunity.

i dont do facebook so not about to have a look

IMHO, I think she just liked the way it sounded. I don't think quote is anything truly profound but words her admirers believe is in some way irreproachable* or is aimed specifically at them. They don't have to understand it or recognize just how banal* or overused such expressions are, if it sounds good then it must be good for everyone. 

* struggling to find the right words Wink
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#7
Secular Sanity Offline
Here’s another "what’s my word?" What word do you use to describe someone that uses meaningless platitudes, and just keeps trying to reinforce a 'truth' statement by repeating the same thing, but using different analogies. Alan Watts comes to mind but there’s a word for this. What is it?
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#8
Syne Offline
Sophist, specious, banal.

(Oct 16, 2018 04:07 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: IMHO, I think she just liked the way it sounded. I don't think quote is anything truly profound but words her admirers believe is in some way irreproachable* or is aimed specifically at them. They don't have to understand it or recognize just how banal* or overused such expressions are, if it sounds good then it must be good for everyone. 

* struggling to find the right words Wink

* A truism?

Dismissing it as banal would seem to validate it...where you lack the curiosity to look any deeper. Apropos.
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#9
C C Offline
(Oct 16, 2018 08:34 AM)RainbowUnicorn Wrote: i dont do facebook so not about to have a look

On Twitter:

She appears to be close friends with Sunday Adelaja in the Ukraine, or maybe additionally a professional or denominational alliance with his church (co-touring with his lecture circuit?).

She remarks that a woman should be able to choose her own life-partner rather than clergy, men, or parents doing such (apparently in reference to practices in Africa).

Does she live in Nigeria? (Dr Sunday Adelaja was born there.) In one tweet she says "My dean prof Iryna Ivaschuck, her sister and my son had fun in school on Nigeria's Independence Day". In another: "Beautiful African artwork made [photographed?] by my dean prof. Iryna Ivaschuck Ternopil National Economics University." (That's in Ukraine, so maybe they're only visiting.)

She understandably dotes on her son a lot. She seems to be doing well career-wise or following her own advice in some of those quotes. Get the sense that she has performances all over the globe, though one could also say that about many an evangelist who merely talks rather than sings. Photos of (her?) marriage ceremony with a good-looking guy (the "King"?). He's garbed in white, too.

~
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#10
Zinjanthropos Offline
(Oct 16, 2018 04:29 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: Here’s another "what’s my word?" What word do you use to describe someone that uses meaningless platitudes, and just keeps trying to reinforce a 'truth' statement by repeating the same thing, but using different analogies. Alan Watts comes to mind but there’s a word for this. What is it?

There has to be a word for Topsy's wisdom giving advice. I first thought it was like some kind of double entendre but it's missing the risqué angle IMO. Whoever reads/hears it thinks it's sage advice and that it applies to, or is targeting them perhaps? Doublespeak?

Quote:deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language: the art of political doublespeak.

Not sure if Topsy falls into the deliberate category, more like innocent to me but then again she's popular and knows it.

I remember this guy from late night tv. King of the double-talkers, a word I used before but doublespeak seems to be catchy these days.

Excerpt: He created a new style of double-talk comedy; instead of making up nonsense words like "krelman" and "trilloweg", like double-talker Al Kelly, the Professor would season his speech with many long and florid, but authentic, words.[12] The professor would then launch into observations about anything under the sun, but seldom actually making sense.
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