[MD] The Relativist's journey

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Marsha]
And I might think some are bending over backwards, due to a cultural and 
personal bias, to reject a term, in its epistemological connotation, 
that is in common use within an Eastern explanation . Including the term 
help establish the bridge between East and West. imho.

[Arlo]
If anything, you and DMB are having different conversations. He is using 
the term as it has meaning within the discourse of the historical 
philosophical conversation, and you are using the term as it has meaning 
to you, ignoring every connotation of the word that doesn't fit into 
your desire to link the MOQ with that term and selecting only those that 
do fit.

The same issue has arisen in the past when people want to say the MOQ is 
a form of theism, and then go out their way to coopt the term theism to 
force-fit it to the MOQ, as if it the only real issue at hand is that 
*they* get to call the MOQ a theism. At that point, the word theism no 
longer has any meaning, at the best it ends up meaning whatever anyone 
wants it to mean. The same thing is happening here with 'relativism'. 
You are so absolutely dedicated to demanding the MOQ is relativism that 
you aren't aware that within the larger philosophic conversation this is 
entirely problematic and advances the MOQ in no way. Indeed, it creates 
unnecessary confusion where there need be none.

But what's going to change? Nothing I or anyone could ever say could 
make someone not consider the MOQ a theistic philosophy if that's what 
they need/want to believe. They've hit a point where they are using the 
term "theism" in such a way that you would be talking past them. Or the 
whole "science is a religion" or "atheism is a religion" nonsense, when 
you hit that point you have lost all meaning in either term. This is 
precisely what happened here when the argument was made that 
"anti-theism is just another form of theism". When someone says this, 
then arguing with them that the MOQ is not theistic is pointless, as you 
are using nearly every term in the dialogue differently.