I can definitely respect other's wishes to avoid these discussions. For the record though, the intent was not to stir up a religious argument but rather, discuss taking care of the planet where we all live. Was hoping to find some folks interested in relating the word and quotes originally quoted from Wordsmith.org to real-world issues, which is what I thought was one of the main premises of the A Word A Day distribution (to spark thought about "important" matters).
If I've overstepped the boundaries of this board, please accept my apologies. But please understand that avoiding issues like this doesn't help to get people into critical-thinking-mode and I believe Critical Thinking is exactly one of the principles Mr. Anu Garg thrives on to keep up such an interesting ~14 year endeavor (would obviously need to ask him personally to know for sure). The words and quotes in his compilations clearly tend to be part of a genre of worldly issues and serious matters, not solely for entertainment purposes.
Words like 'Speciesism' contain an inherent invitation to political-philosophical-religious discussion, since the word is coined by people with a particular world view who are pushing a particular philosophical agenda. Despite our best attempts to play with words as neutral, lexical, objective things, in Real Life they have no real meaning apart from their social context. Speciesism is a loaded word. Its meaning goes to the heart of what it means to be human, which is an area of controversy and debate in which religious beliefs are fundamental to the view one takes - there is no neutral ground.
Discussing 'Speciesim' without mention of beliefs regarding the nature of Humanity and our relationship to the whole scheme of things in the universe would be like trying to discuss the word 'padre' without being allowed to talk about Christianity, or the word 'cadre' without being allowed to mention the Communist Party.
On the wider issue of religious and/or political discussion generally, other special interest forums have sections entitled something like "General Chit-Chat" or "Off Topic" where people can post things not directly related to the main reason for the forum. Do we have something like that lurking somewhere? I haven't been round long enough to know.
