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→Creationism definition
:Dictionaries aren't perfect, and Aschlafly believes they're loaded with liberal bias, too, but dictionaries try to document how words are actually used, and if somebody wants to depart from a dictionary definition I think the burden is on them to justify it. And usually such a departure wouldn't be absolute. It would be something more along the lines of: state something like the dictionary definition, ''then'' state something like "However, within the creationist community, a more technical definition is preferred. The American Association of Creation Theorists, in its 1997 ''Handbook of Creationism,'' gives this definition," etc. etc.
:Dictionaries aren't perfect, and Aschlafly believes they're loaded with liberal bias, too, but dictionaries try to document how words are actually used, and if somebody wants to depart from a dictionary definition I think the burden is on them to justify it. And usually such a departure wouldn't be absolute. It would be something more along the lines of: state something like the dictionary definition, ''then'' state something like "However, within the creationist community, a more technical definition is preferred. The American Association of Creation Theorists, in its 1997 ''Handbook of Creationism,'' gives this definition," etc. etc.
:It's not fair to present a definition that goes beyond what is commonly understood by adding points that you personally believe ''ought'' to be understood.
:An analogy would be the word "carnivore," whose dictionary definition is meat-eating animal, but which has a technical definition in Zoology as members of the order ''Carnivora''" which include dogs, cats, and seals, but excludes many meat-eating mammals such as bats, humans, an marsupials... and excludes anything that is not a mammal. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 14:05, 12 March 2007 (EDT)
:An analogy would be the word "carnivore," whose dictionary definition is meat-eating animal, but which has a technical definition in Zoology as members of the order ''Carnivora''" which include dogs, cats, and seals, but excludes many meat-eating mammals such as bats, humans, an marsupials... and excludes anything that is not a mammal. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 14:05, 12 March 2007 (EDT)
:Actually, I see that American Heritage gives what I call the technical definition as its second definition. Dictionaries are really very good. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 14:07, 12 March 2007 (EDT)
:Actually, I see that American Heritage gives what I call the technical definition as its second definition. Dictionaries are really very good. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 14:07, 12 March 2007 (EDT)