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Old Mar 5, 2007, 03:01 pm   #15 (permalink) (top)
Kamehameha34
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Quote by: Isherwood View Post
When using the noun nature, you're usually talking about forests, the outback, the mountains. What makes them natural in a positive sense? Have you ever stood at the base of a mountain and looked up? Have you ever climbed one? Mountains are where the planet is wrinkled, where the surface has been violently and sometimes quickly deformed on a scale we have difficulty imagining. It's the manifestation of the planetary forces working on the planetary material, the evidence that this is a dynamic planet.
Oh yeah, mountains are very natural, in the good way.
How is that natural - what are the criteria? The fact that it is without human intervention?

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Quote by: Alive View Post
I think the only implication of the word "unnatural" used negatively (and it is not only used negatively) is that the thing referred to is considered negative. For example, homosexuality has been often termed "unnatural" but I don't think many people claim that humans "invented" it. Unnatural in this case is just a synonym for "personally distasteful."
I think that's a manipulation of the word's connotation. The word carries a negative one, so describing political enemies or concepts with it places that connotation on said enemy or concept. That's why it's so amorphous in politics.
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