Re: Response to Dream Lover on the theme of the hereditary principle of the Bahá'í Faith.

My apologies, I though you were a native speaker of English, but
clearly you are not. Take a look at the sentence X symbolizes Y. If
X does not have the qualities of Y can it symbolize it? A first grade
student can answer that! Can a chicken symbolize a marshmallow? A
tree symbolize an egg? It's a simple grammatical structure.

Look at the dictionary:

Verb 1. symbolize - express indirectly by an image, form, or model; be
a symbol; "What does the Statue of Liberty symbolize?"
stand for, symbolise, typify, represent
mean, intend - mean or intend to express or convey; "You never
understand what I mean!"; "what do his words intend?"
embody, personify, be - represent, as of a character on stage; "Derek
Jacobi was Hamlet"
epitomise, epitomize, typify - embody the essential characteristics of
or be a typical example of; "The fugue typifies Bach's style of
composition"
2. symbolize - represent or identify by using a symbol; use symbols;
"The poet symbolizes love in this poem"; "These painters believed that
artists should symbolize"
symbolise
represent - describe or present, usually with respect to a particular
quality; "He represented this book as an example of the Russian 19th
century novel"

It means quite simply to represent. The Guardian REPRESENTS the
Hereditary Principle. The Guardian STANDS FOR the Hereditary
Principle. Good lord, if we have to get back to first grade
grammar...

On Feb 5, 10:27 am, Jeffrey <Jeffrey...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Feb 4, 3:46 pm, ross_in_canada <rosscampb...@xxxxxxx> wrote:



On Feb 4, 1:45 pm, Dream Lover <dreamlo...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Shoghi Effendi was educated in England, he knew the English language
better than you or I and he wrote "hereditary principle," now you can
invent whatever meaning you want those words but they are your
meanings not the meanings that Shoghi Effendi would have used and
studied at Oxford.  The use of this term, known and used in English
common law for centuries, made clear what Abdu'l Baha was talking
about in the Will and Testament.  You've danced around it for years,
but if Shoghi Effendi were talking about something other than a
physical hereditary relationship why would he chose a precise legal
term that meant just that?  I know, just like everything else you say
he did, to confuse Ruhiyyah Khanum!

Here you are demanding a physical hereditary principle when your
version
 of the Faith cannot have any hereditary principle, ever, be it
physical or
spiritual or any combination of both.
-Ross

Of course, the idea that the hereditary principle (i.e. nobility) is a
spiritual one in the Faith, as so articulately stated by Ross,  is
supported by the statement by Shoghi Effendi in the Dispensation of
Baha'u'llah that the Guardian "symbolizes the hereditary principle"
which can only mean that an actual blood heredity is not being
suggested.  When you talk about the precision of language by Shoghi
Effendi, it is a good idea to look at the precise language he
employed!

Jeffrey

.

Relevant Pages

  • =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:_Response_to_Dream_Lover_on_the_theme_of_the_here?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q
    ... X does not have the qualities of Y can it symbolize it? ... The Guardian STANDS FOR the Hereditary ... better than you or I and he wrote "hereditary principle," now you can ... It is symbolic -- hence it is a spiritual heredity. ...
    (talk.religion.bahai)
  • Re: "Friendly Premises"
    ... >> H. J. Sander Bruggink wrote: ... > The problem in your argument is the referring to; ... You'd know that one was false (in both English and Dutch ... language (and most of us understand that both words symbolize the same ...
    (sci.logic)