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DragonShade 02-03-2008 11:30 AM

Help
 
My grammar is not that good, and the homework is due the on Mon

Here's the sentence (what I dont understand is what "not in favor of one" means.)

Here we find in this world a great deal of injustice, and so far as that goes that a reason for supposing that justice does not rule in the world; and therefore so far as it goes it affords a moral argument against deity and not in favor of one

filiadragongurl 02-05-2008 02:48 AM

I know it's already Monday night (at least where I am) but that part you're confused about... Could it be talking about how there is no favor for a deity, or God, in the argument for how justice does not rule in the world? Because if there were a God (or Gods) the world wouldn't be full of injustice, right? I think that's what it's saying.

But seriously! I'm a native English speaker and a college graduate and it took me at least 6 times reading it to get the meaning of that sentence! Yikes!

Sorry I responded too late^_^;

DragonShade 02-05-2008 08:21 AM

haha, thank you ! but I manage to make it somehow, Thanks again~

Amnell 02-05-2008 08:29 AM

Is that from a text? Because that sentence is phrased in a very strange way... It makes sense, after reading it a couple times, but it's very strange o_o .

Anyway, the phrase in question simply means "in favour of a deity".

Quote:

and therefore so far as it goes it affords a moral argument against deity and not in favor of one
"So you can reason that as far as this is concerned, there is a moral argument AGAINST a deity rather than in FAVOUR of a deity."

Hope I'm not too late to be of help!!!

samurai007 02-05-2008 08:51 AM

I found sentences like that in Japanese textbooks for learning English all too often. It's like they are trying to make it harder than it needs to be... That whole convoluted sentence can be summed up like this:

The lack of justice in the world is evidence that there is no God.

Amnell 02-06-2008 03:42 AM

A slight over-simplification, IMO, but you're right.

In keeping with the desired academic/professional tone, I would have written it this way:

"We find a great deal of injustice in this world--so much so that one might think that justice has no place in today's world; so much so that one could form a good argument against the existence of a deity rather than in favour of one. "

I hope my Japanese text book is more accurate than what I've seen of this particular English text book... o_o;


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