Comments on: An Argument in Defense of the Serial Comma http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/ by Hemant Mehta Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:15:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Rebecca G. Fernandez » Blog Archive » 5 Grammar Mistakes Even Good Writers Make http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-624705 Rebecca G. Fernandez » Blog Archive » 5 Grammar Mistakes Even Good Writers Make Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:57:02 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-624705 [...] a fan of the serial comma, for reasons of clarity, so I always use it. You need not be married to the serial comma, but you do need to significantly [...] [...] a fan of the serial comma, for reasons of clarity, so I always use it. You need not be married to the serial comma, but you do need to significantly [...]

]]> By: Barry http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-415851 Barry Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:01:05 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-415851 I disagree with you on this: <blockquote>I don’t think the lack of a serial comma in the original post is a problem. It does not change the meaning of the quote at all.</blockquote> As written, <blockquote>the exclusivity of Christianity as a path to salvation and homosexuality</blockquote> can be read as being in apposition to <blockquote>the divinity of Jesus</blockquote> As in, what makes Jesus divine is that he is the exclusive path to homosexuality. The original may not be as completely ambiguous as "I'd like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God" but it's still has some ambiguity. I disagree with you on this:

I don’t think the lack of a serial comma in the original post is a problem. It does not change the meaning of the quote at all.

As written,

the exclusivity of Christianity as a path to salvation and homosexuality

can be read as being in apposition to

the divinity of Jesus

As in, what makes Jesus divine is that he is the exclusive path to homosexuality. The original may not be as completely ambiguous as “I’d like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God” but it’s still has some ambiguity.

]]> By: billy http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-400619 billy Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:28:56 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-400619 Believers! Refrain from putting your "God" on our money,in the pledge, and on the courthouse steps. If you use government to force me to live your belief, I must resist. Yucch. Can't help it... fed the troll... Cross an agnostic, an insomniac, and a dyslexic you have someone who is awake all night wondering if there is a dog. At mother's death I am pretty sure the last thought in her mind was that she was going to Jesus. With such a belief it does not matter if God exists or not. Only the belief needs to exist. Believers! Refrain from putting your “God” on our money,in the pledge, and on the courthouse steps. If you use government to force me to live your belief, I must resist.

Yucch. Can’t help it… fed the troll…

Cross an agnostic, an insomniac, and a dyslexic you have someone who is awake all night wondering if there is a dog.

At mother’s death I am pretty sure the last thought in her mind was that she was going to Jesus. With such a belief it does not matter if God exists or not. Only the belief needs to exist.

]]> By: Ant http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-399198 Ant Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:21:23 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-399198 Bring this back to the subject of the OP, it's all very well a bunch of experienced and practicing writers discussing the ins and outs of the serial comma (and the enlightened path to homosexuality for that matter). However, I work in an engineering environment, where writing is about showing other people how clever you are, by writing as much as possible (I'm working on a solution). Most of those SMEs wouldn't know if a serial comma altered the meaning of their sentence or not; so in my context, it's simpler to have a rule they can all understand: put it in. And thank you to Hemant for spotting this, it's a far more comprehensible argument for including it than the 'My parents, God and Ayn Rand' version. Bring this back to the subject of the OP, it’s all very well a bunch of experienced and practicing writers discussing the ins and outs of the serial comma (and the enlightened path to homosexuality for that matter). However, I work in an engineering environment, where writing is about showing other people how clever you are, by writing as much as possible (I’m working on a solution). Most of those SMEs wouldn’t know if a serial comma altered the meaning of their sentence or not; so in my context, it’s simpler to have a rule they can all understand: put it in.
And thank you to Hemant for spotting this, it’s a far more comprehensible argument for including it than the ‘My parents, God and Ayn Rand’ version.

]]> By: dostoyevskyist http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-399119 dostoyevskyist Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:54:18 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-399119 Rather than wasting time haggling over dry definitions of terms, I'd like Don S or any other self-respecting theist to explain why their god slaughters so many children and torments the vast majority of human beings who have never heard of it. Without a satisfactory explanation--or an admission that their god enjoys human suffering--theisms like Christianity have no value for any reasoning person. Belief in Shiva the Destroyer or in one of the bloodthirsty Aztec/Inca/Maya deities makes more sense. Rather than wasting time haggling over dry definitions of terms, I’d like Don S or any other self-respecting theist to explain why their god slaughters so many children and torments the vast majority of human beings who have never heard of it. Without a satisfactory explanation–or an admission that their god enjoys human suffering–theisms like Christianity have no value for any reasoning person. Belief in Shiva the Destroyer or in one of the bloodthirsty Aztec/Inca/Maya deities makes more sense.

]]> By: NiVeKeR14 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-398499 NiVeKeR14 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:56:33 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-398499 <blockquote>What is your name for those who know God does not exist? Antignostics, maybe? </blockquote> No, those would also be gnostics. As in a gnostic atheist. Theres Agnostic Atheists: Those that claim to not know for sure whether gods exist and also do not believe in them. Gnostic Atheists: Those that claim to know gods do not exist and therefore do not believe in them. Agnostic Theists: Those that claim to not know for sure if gods exist, but nevertheless believes they do. and Gnostic Theists: Those that claim to know gods exist and therefore believe in them.

What is your name for those who know God does not exist? Antignostics, maybe?

No, those would also be gnostics. As in a gnostic atheist.

Theres Agnostic Atheists: Those that claim to not know for sure whether gods exist and also do not believe in them.

Gnostic Atheists: Those that claim to know gods do not exist and therefore do not believe in them.

Agnostic Theists: Those that claim to not know for sure if gods exist, but nevertheless believes they do.

and Gnostic Theists: Those that claim to know gods exist and therefore believe in them.

]]> By: Saganist http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-396407 Saganist Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:20:29 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-396407 "Listen here, all you atheists! I'll tell you what an atheist <em>really</em> is!" Thank you, come again. “Listen here, all you atheists! I’ll tell you what an atheist really is!”

Thank you, come again.

]]> By: 1 Boring Old Man » on strike… http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-395253 1 Boring Old Man » on strike… Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:13:57 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-395253 [...] on Friday 13 November 2009 An Argument in Defense of the Serial Comma The Friendly Atheist by Hemant [...] [...] on Friday 13 November 2009 An Argument in Defense of the Serial Comma The Friendly Atheist by Hemant [...]

]]> By: hoverFrog http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-389918 hoverFrog Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:48:29 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-389918 A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds, or to be less extreme, a choice of persuasions to put it down to fancy; until - "My God," says a second man, "I must be dreaming, I though I saw a unicorn." At which point, a dimension is added that makes the experience as alarming as it will ever be. A third witness, you understand, adds no further dimension but only spreads it thinner, and a fourth thinner still, and the more witnesses there are the thinner it gets and the more reasonable it becomes until it is as thin as reality, the name we give to the common experience..."Look, look!" recites the crowd. "A horse with an arrow in its forehead! It must have been mistaken for a deer." — Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead) A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds, or to be less extreme, a choice of persuasions to put it down to fancy; until – “My God,” says a second man, “I must be dreaming, I though I saw a unicorn.” At which point, a dimension is added that makes the experience as alarming as it will ever be. A third witness, you understand, adds no further dimension but only spreads it thinner, and a fourth thinner still, and the more witnesses there are the thinner it gets and the more reasonable it becomes until it is as thin as reality, the name we give to the common experience…”Look, look!” recites the crowd. “A horse with an arrow in its forehead! It must have been mistaken for a deer.”

— Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead)

]]> By: Peter http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/11/01/an-argument-in-defense-of-the-serial-comma/#comment-389720 Peter Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:53 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=17843#comment-389720 I absolutely cannot resist quoting Vampire Weekend on this one, and I'm amazed I got to it first. Who gives a <em>fuck</em> about an Oxford comma? I absolutely cannot resist quoting Vampire Weekend on this one, and I’m amazed I got to it first. Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?

]]>