As a bit of a stickler for semantics I feel it deserves some attention when discussing all kinds of topics.  Arguments and discussions become troublesome when people use a different meaning for words and phrases. Add the multitude of possible logical fallacies in the mix and you've got a disaster on your hands. 

​

With pretext, context, synonyms and more, there are many things that can be misinterpret. During plenty of discussions I found myself asking "What do you think I mean, why I say ...". Unfortunately it's necessary to ask this, in order to avoid hours of useless debate based on a misunderstanding of terms, phrases, theories or concepts even. When discussing subjects like Big Bang Cosmology, Evolution or even the concept of Atheism, people seem to contribute a meaning to terms like these, that they just don't have. 

​

Here's a wonderfull example. One of the most misused or misunderstood words is "agnostic". It is used as a noun. The use of the word agnostic is widely accepted as a noun. That doesn't make it correct, though. The proper use of the word "agnostic" is as an adjective. The word is derrived from "gnosis", which refers to "knowledge of spiritual mysteries". Some people believe they know the spiritual world, others recognise that they can't know the spiritual world. However... recognizing that you can not know, doesn't tell anyone, wether you lean to believing the spiritual world exists, or not. This is why you would need an adjective and a noun. Something like an 'Gnostic Atheist' or an Agnostic Theist'. Basically, you can categorize 4 groups. 

​

• Gnostic Atheists, who believe they know a God doesn't exist. 

• Agnostic Atheists, who do not believe a God exists, but recognise they can not know.

• Agnostic Theists, who do believe a God exists, but recognise they can not know everything about God.

• Gnostic Theists, who believe they know God exists. 

​

As you can see, the word Agnostic, on it's own, doesn't tell you wether or not this person does or doesn't believe a God exists. Thus, you can't use agnostic as a noun. On it's own it just doesn't carry the correct meaning. Ofcourse  I understand how it is used, commonly. That just doesn't mean the common use of the word is correct. And this is why semantics is important.