I'm afraid I can't watch this video yet because I know Jonathan will have a point that will stick with me

Thank God for Jonathon Pageau! ❤

Another reason to stop swearing is that it requires a person to become more mindful of their speech, which is always a good thing. I used to swear compulsively, carelessly and shamelessly using the most profane words in front of children. I was only able to get into the head space where I'd even consider bettering myself and my speech once I made the decision to stop swearing and watch my mouth. It took effort, because I'd swear so much that stopping myself from swearing meant stopping myself from saying every other word. That effort translated into constant watching of myself and my speech, which was tremendously helpful to me in getting myself out of the unconscious pit of degeneracy I was in for so many years prior.

*Stubs his toe*: Oh, by Abraham's seed!

One of the good things my mother did when I was growing up was not allow anyone to curse in the house. To this day we have a policy at home of no cursing. You can feel the difference versus when you enter a home where the whole family curses.

"oh, copulate!" is so funny that i physically cannot stand it

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." -the Holy Apostle Paul to the Ephesians (4:29)

As someone who swears much too much yes. It’s a very practical invocation of chaos into life. Which causes more undisciplined swearing. Which invokes more chaos. Yea. I pray all the time and that probably just nets me enough order to keep my head above water. As it were.

Swearing is an abandonment of self-discipline. If you truly consider every word you use, when articulating yourself, then you are following a pattern of truth derived from the Logos. To swear is to temporarily stray off the etymological path of purpose.

There are other ways to think about curse words. One is to think about them as a weapon. You need them occassionally, but most of the time you sheath them. Showing them all that the time points to some disbalance in your mind. The other way is to think about them as painkillers (which they actually are). The more you use them, the less effective they are, and the more desensitized you become.

I stopped swearing in the last few years, and it was a semi conscious process /decision. I felt also really not comfortable with people who would swear so much around me. In a way i felt more deeply that i have responsibility (consciously ) of my wording out, and nd that my emotions actually trigger words of different quality. I first got rid of the 'i hate' this or that. I don't need to. I prefer 'harmonizing' with something that appears as repulsive or not nice or which i feel against to my opinions and ideas. By harmonizing means ' i choose to neutralize the conflicting emotion and to understand that there are subtle reasons for that to be oppose, and to appear to me in that way'. And in that way i allow the 'conflict' to resolve internally, not externally messing up 'the world'. Beauty and ugly are in the eyes of the beholder. Swearing has also a different level, which is expressed so clearly by Jonathan. In the wording one cannot ignore intention (emotion), and swearing could work as a spell (of magic) in my opinion, and that might be another level to explore. Which powers we have and how responsible are we with them. 🙏

I watched that entire interview. It was interesting to watch Pageau's patristic outlook engage with Fradd's Thomistic outlook. Fradd seemed almost mystified at times.

thank you, Jonathan, please keep doing what you're doing

Aside from the religious motivation to stop swearing, there is another, let's say "worldly" reason to stop swearing. This helped me in stopping 6 years ago: There are situations in life where swear words are "acceptable" - with your close friends etc. And there are situations where swear words are unacceptable - in front of authorities or in front of your girlfriend's parents. So if your personal vocabulary consists of casual swear words, then you have to think and calculate in real time whether or not swear words are acceptable in your current situation. But if your personal vocabulary doesn't consist of casual swear words (you train yourself out of these words over time), then you can talk with ease, without having to think or calculate if the word you're about to say is acceptable in the current situation you are in.

Somewhere out there in the eternally winding prism of eternities is a reality destroyed. A cold, lightless, timeless cloud of subatomic chaos drifting mutely in a directionless void. There, at the center of this nothing you will find its one and only something: a kitchen table with a pile of crap on it. Actions have consequences.

Thank you! 🙌🏼

Nice, I would like to see how this is related to comedy

Great insights. Both types are disorderly and either take God's holy name or sex in an ugly, angry, destructive way; or put unclean things like poop where they don't belong. Interesting and hopefully will guide me in expressing anger appropriately in the future.

Thank you for your work amazing 😊

6:43 *SWOOOOREEEE!*

Thank you Jonathan

Excellent! 👌🙌

Very interesting, thanks!

So in essence swearing is a post-modernist act which takes the good and the bad and dissolves both into a gray mush of relativist meaninglessness?

Yikes. The last minute really forced me to look at myself. I'm pretty damaged...and damaging.

Ayn Rand, who was non-religious and purely rational, did not swear (except on rare occasions for effect).

I see it as, What is a swear word? A word we deem inappropriate(in at least some circumstances at least some of the time), as well as to represent something in the world or a feeling(or another way to say something representing something in the world or a feeling, like excrement and sh**). What is a word? A string of sounds put together almost arbitrarily, and represented by symbols, strung almost arbitrarily. Is it wrong to recite sounds(if we take away the meaning of them)? It doesn't seem so. So it doesn't seem wrong to recite these words because we deem them inappropriate. Unless of course we are using them in a way to denigrate or belittle someone or if you say these words when you know someone you will be around is sensitive to those words. I like using the F-word. The F-word has a lot of uses. It can be used to mean having sex, a expletive when hurt or surprised and to emphasize or exaggerate a point. So if I hurt myself, "ouch" may be what comes out of my mouth. But I may also say the F-word, I am meaning the same thing. If I say "I have a really big bookshelf" or I say "I have an effing big bookshelf" I meaning the same thing. That's why I cringe at when people try to find "Christian alternatives to swear words" because you are meaning the same thing, just using different sounds. Maybe I am a fool though, or maybe I have thought too much about this and need to go to sleep haha

I read the Master and His Emissary, a few years back, I don't know the page number, but McGilchrist mentions that profanity is not stored in the same part of the brain as regular language, so people suffering a stroke that damages the language center, are often still able to swear. At least anecdotally, I knew a man with just such an affliction, and that was the case. He was unable to string sentences together or pick the correct word, but he could cuss like a rapper.

Giving reason NOT to swear doesn't help to prevent it-it only piles on the guilt in the process. As with any "sin" (that is doing what you would not do-Paul's Romans 6-8 argument), the weakness of the flesh to comply is revealed through the law. The real problem is the judgment that said, "this isn't right!" and triggered the swearing, not the swearing itself. God's argument to people in the Bible, whether it was to Israel cursing their desert circumstances ("This isn't right!"), to Job about his disasters ("This isn't right!"), to Habakkuk foreseeing Judah's doom (This isn't right!") or to Paul with his thorn ("This isn't right!"), was to respond with some version of "Who told you it wasn't right?" While "manna" might be doled out to some delaying resolution, the ending to all of these conflicts was a profound realization of God's, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12).

Self control. Unleashing a string of expletives when one stubs a toe, is a childish way to complain about the world. And everything a Christian should avoid. Prayer and fasting should fix the trouble. Same fix for smoking.

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." Ephesians 4:29 If someone does not believe in God then there are many ways to argue with the points presented here. And, fundamentally, If there's no God then there are NO real Morals period. We're all just random collections of waves or atoms interacting at various levels to no real purpose. From nothing going to nothing. So there's that. So anyones idea of "not using swear words" "using swear words when APPROPRIATE" are all just arbitrary meaningless rules. However if one does believe/understand we are created beings with high purpose. And that we should strive to be the best we can be. Like God, Godly. Like Christ. Then what they say is plays in wise territory. Biblically speaking there's no question: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:5-10 Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4 and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the perverted conduct of unscrupulous people (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds) 2 Peter 2:7-8

love this sh*t;D

Would "Holy S***" be an instantiation of "confusing the sacred with the dark outside" (5:28)? Isn't "kodesh" at least partly neutral to what it is that is being "set apart" or consecrated in relation to above or below? Just as Jonathan points out here and elsewhere; Christ brings everything (!) together in Himself and by so doing shows the world what wholly(holy)-ness really looks like.

Nice topic! But let’s not lump all animals together, my dog goes to the bathroom, lol!

👍🏽

I have only recently come to think about swearing, and why we should not use vulgarity in our every day language. Eg. When you use the "F-Word" as an adjective in a sentence, what are you actually saying? Like.. what does "this f***ing thing" mean? It doesn't make sense.. I truly believe that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, and we should always put ourselves under God. I also think gaining a symbolic worldview is really important to waking up to the reality of the implications of our words.. I just don't see how using swear words is a good expression. I personally want to be able to articulate my speech in a way where I am much more descriptive. I can't stand listening to my fellow Australian's now... I just want to yell at them and say that the words they're using are not descriptive or useful Lol

Brilliant ! Habitual swearing is a bad thing. Swearing at its best is an art form, to be called upon only when polite language is inadequate. The polite social world is necessary to keep order, as Jonathan says, but it is also quite constraining. When that order fails us, a powerful, creative use of forbidden words can be pure poetry.

Swearing according to neuroscientists is located in a very particular place in the mind. There is a function of swearing also. Violent speech can save. It is in the place of action often....posturing.

Why is it bad to be beastlike? That is what I wish he would explain. If anything, that recognition would humble a lot of people and thats a good thing. This appeal seems almost prideful to me.

Well shit, I have to watch my language 😂

Fiddle

I understand not using sacred words or concepts as curses. I am a bit more dubious over the notion of using the "things from below" as curses being an inherent wrong. Like the sacred, they can be misused. But there are some things which are cursed rightfully, for which no other words would suffice.

Like holy crap

Stop crapping on the kitchen table. Got it

But can we still tell pagans that the idea that you can know what Zoroastrianism was is "bullsh*t"? 🤣

Or be a grown up and use swear words when appropriate. Some people just love to add more rules to live than are needed.

I've heard of a study that linked intelligence with swearing. I don't buy it. "Intelligent WHAT", exactly? There's business intelligence, and then there's emotional intelligence. I worked for some super smart people over 15 years at a high tech company. I found that the "heavy swearing" smart managers and directors also tended to be very low on empathy, as well having a weak approach to team building -- sometimes to the point of intimidation and borderline harrassment. I don't mean the occasional "Oh sh**t, we have an emergency!" -- but the regular, non-stop continual swearing type, dropping F-bombs like a monsoon rain around the office, and even at all-hands meetings. While not universally true of everyone who were "high swearers" -- there's generally something about the use of foul language that sucked the air out of the room and just reeked of arrogance and negativity. I honestly had difficulty respecting them. I mean -- WTF?

Nothing really explained here on any pragmatic level. Just a longwinded abstract over-analysis of what really is a non-issue in the grand scheme of things. They are just words used in expressions. They are neutral in their use just like any other words. Swearing as a benign expression is not at all wrong, while swearing at someone (non-sarcastically) as an attack or insult isn't magically any worse that insulting them with a word other than the completely arbitrary list of "swear" words boomers pulled out of their ass. It's a social construct. Bottom line, and every argument given to try and retroactively backtrack and explain away this ultimately emotionally based taboo have been non-sequiturs. What was explained above, boiled down, really just reminds me of the "violent video games make people violent" fallacy that any reasonable person knows is stupid and an inaccurate assessment and understanding of real human behavior and influence. Same with this. me saying shit all the time for various different things isn't going to make me more akin to wanted to just shit in public or in the kitchen for example. You really overestimate suggestibility here it seems.

I understand what is being said, but like all religious symbolism.. its incomplete. Life is far more complex and not everything means something more than what it is. What if someone is acting in a way that is disjointed or in disjunction and identifying them as being an "asshole" doesnt destroy reality, as its merely a descriptive word to describe somebody who is actually destroying reality with behaviour, not words. And stubbing your toe is painful.. yelling out mouth noises is perfectly justified. The word shit or fuck is a mouth noise similar to saying "arrrrghhh". Relax...not everything is deep and about jesus you christian symbolism freaks lol. Put the tea leaves down sometimes. "I leave symbols to the symbol-minded" - George Carlin

But is it ok to say « Christ que t’es belle! » to a beautiful woman?