Opposite

[pandora_parrot]

I found another example today of how setting up artificial binaries doesn't quite make sense...

In the office today, the following question came up: What's the opposite of a Catholic?

If we go by Catholic mythology, then the opposite of a Catholic is a Satanist.

However, I can easily construct contexts within which any of these things are opposite of Catholicism: Protestants, atheists, agnostics, and many others.

What is opposite to Catholicism (or anything for that matter) is wholly an effect of the criteria that you're judging on.

Comments

[maestrodog.livejournal.com]

The proselytization of so many fundamentalst Christians (evangelical Catholics among them) to those who won't follow their beliefs is "Your soul will go to the devil!" or some other such cry. What many seem to not realize (or more likely, deliberately omit the information) is that the "devil" they speak of is an invention of their own religion, created to represent the "polar opposite" of their idea of God, which IMHO makes no sense any more than Satan does, nor does it take into account any "in betweens," which EVERYONE is...and who is any mere human to judge where the line is actually drawn before one progresses from God to Satan?

I like the atheist analogy best though, because it suggests the presence of an immeasurable phenomena via the absence of a measurable one (e.g. like dark being the opposite of light, or cold the opposite of heat. In each example, only the second is actually measurable).

[pazi-ashfeather.livejournal.com]

The opposite of a Catholic is an Anticatholic. They mutually-annihilate if they come into contact.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

eek. That's frightening.

But perhaps we could use that. Turn it into a source of power?

The possibilities are endless.

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

The opposite of catholic is individual. The opposite of Catholicism is individualism.


*"Catholic" means "universal"

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

Oooh! There's a neat one!

[lisbethk24.livejournal.com]

Technically, the opposite of "catholic" is "local." But at the time the name "Catholic" started being used, the opposite of it was "Orthodox."

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Or "Gnostic."

But, you know, this points up a fundamental flaw in the idea of opposites to begin with. It creates a spectrum defined as falling between two poles, which may or may not encompass all members of the relevant set.

For example, Julia Serano, in her study of sexism qua femininity and transgenderism, points out that the sexes are not "opposites." They are just different. If the sexes are opposite, then we arrive at traditional understanding of womanhood being the opposite of manhood even in ways that have nothing to do with reality: weak as opposed to strong, yielding as opposed to firm, and so on.

With regard to race, black is not the opposite of white, though those names were chosen instead of "brown" and "tan" in order to create the illusion of opposition.

The fall of Opposite! Let Opposite be damned for a dog!

[lisbethk24.livejournal.com]

"A main topic in the interim chapters is negation considered with a view to bringing out how the simplicity of the antithetical oppositions between the negative and the positive in classical and dialectical logic and between apophatic and cataphatic theology is complicated by a certain quasi-transcendental affirmation that is presupposed by those oppositions."

http://cakmpls.livejournal.com/429675.html
http://cakmpls.livejournal.com/431522.html

[serendipitygirl.livejournal.com]

..."Christian"
(snark how I love thee)

The opposite of any arbitrary data point is immaterial as it's all contextual. Still, it makes for interesting, if broken, contemplation.

[foxgrrl]

What is the opposite of a house?
What is the opposite of a rock?
What is the opposite of a teacup?
What is the opposite of a tree?
What is the opposite of a car?

[alfador-fox.livejournal.com]

VERY YES.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

esouh a?
kcor a?
puceat a?
eert a?
rac a?

It's not really that hard, I think.

[mdiumcoolgrrl.livejournal.com]

I'd rather find common ground (somehow) with Catholicism...or more to the point, individual Catholics, and try to work on peaceable coexistence, rather than worry about oppositionalism.

We're all kinda stuck with each other.