When examined, or just because it’s weird on its own.

Example: Beat a dead horse

  1. You whip a horse to go faster
  2. It dies from being whipped too much
  3. You still want the horse to go faster
  4. You continue to whip it
  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    Taking God’s name in vain

    1. You invoke God on some topic you’re wrong about.
    2. God appears and sees your worthless comment.
    3. ???
    4. God punishes you, or he backs away, or he learns to not listen to you anymore in boy cries wolf type situation? Its really not clear what the repercussions are.
    • sping@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      I thought it was stating that something is God’s will for your own purposes. AFAIK it’s not just using terms for God as a curse.

      • tetris11@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        https://www.etymonline.com/word/vain

        The expression comes from the phrase “in vain” which restores the original meaning of the noun vain away from the conceited meaning and more towards the vacuous sense. So if you’re taking God’s name in vain, it’s using God’s name needlessly.

    • stray@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      I think the idea was that he could be invoked by his name, but they couldn’t have people going around saying “Jehova” (or whatever) randomly without any cool powers happening, so they made up the rule to discourage people poking holes in their flimsy story.

    • CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      3 days ago

      No, no, it was originally “Taking God’s name in vein,” as saying the name of God out loud would allow Him into your blood. If you say the name of God, you allow him to inhabit your blood, gain your power, and become even more mighty. The ancient Hebrews feared God gaining too much power, as He would be able to destroy the world. Then Christians figured out that if they took Communion and instead drank the blood of Christ, they could reverse the Hebrew God’s power and slowly increase their own until they could ascend to the heavens and do battle with the Almighty, empowered by His blood in their veins, rather than weakened by taking His name in vein. In this seventeen-part essay, I will describe how we can defeat God by

        • Taleya@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 days ago

          The bible is a collection of thousands of years of oral history and societal laws put to paper generations after the fact, allegory and letters to random fuckers and varying accounts of a Jewish cult leader who was executed for crimes against the state. It’s gonna have a potted narrative.

    • wuphysics87@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      That’s one that always bothered me too. When I say “Jesus fucking Christ” I mean it. Which is it’s own weird ism when you think about it…