- Six or Sex?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1

Our family lived in Germany when my son was in Kindergarten. I always thought it appropriate that he attended kindergarten in Germany since the English language adopted the word from her German influence. Though kindergarten lessons taught my son a lot of things, but I wasn’t ready for the day he came to me with a serious look on his face, and oh so innocently asked, “Dad, what is sex?”
My mind went wild! A frenzy of thoughts: He’s so young, just a kindergartner. What can I say that won’t scar him for life? Why would he ask such a thing? How did the whole bird’s and bee’s thing work? I got a little grip on reality (a small grip I’ll admit), and asked him simply, and in a calm voice – okay, my voice may have cracked – I said gently, “Why do you ask son?”
His little eyebrows furrowed, my heart started to pound, “Well Ryan,” his friend of the same age across the street (Oh, what had Ryan done now?) He continued, “Ryan said that sex is seven, but I thought sex was six.”
German, the boy was asking about the German word sex. My heart started to go back to its normal speed, and as calmly as I could, I said, “Yes, you’re right, the German word for six is sex, seven is seben.” I hadn’t quite finished when he turned and began his dash to Ryan’s apartment building; he was a boy with a mission.

My young son learned English and was learning some German; both are languages. A language is a set of sounds or symbols and the rules of use as established by a society. Commonly, we call the sounds we make with our mouths the spoken word; written symbols (like the alphabet or hieroglyphics) we call the written word; and, the set of rules to put it together in proper order is called grammar (and include punctuation). Less commonly, certain hand and arm gestures, and their rules for use, are called sign-language. The purpose of a society’s common language is to allow people to communicate with each other. Just these facts about languages lead me to one conclusion:
We understand each other’s words based on our common language.

Of course I could be wrong, so let’s apply a little common sense. What if someone disagrees with my proposed self-evident truth? We would expect them to somehow let us know that they disagree. But if they tell us or show us that they disagree, they must be expecting us to understand the meaning of their words, looks, or gestures. Their expectation of our understanding proves the point. If they intend for us to understand the word, look, or gesture they’ve just used to express their disagreement, then I must think they expect us to understand their definition of that word, look, or gesture.
Think of it this way: Suppose someone sitting in their home, alone, reading this book disagrees with me. How can they let me know they disagree? I guess they could vigorously shake their head. Unfortunately, if I can’t see them, that gesture wouldn’t matter. They could write me a letter, send a friend, try to contact me in a myriad of ways; but it doesn’t matter. The fact is that the person who disagrees with me, and attempts to communicate to me their disagreement – no matter what form it takes or how delivered – has expected me to understand their message.
It doesn’t matter whether the language is spoken, written, in sign-language, or in a language that I don’t understand; they have attempted to communicate. If they have made that attempt to communicate, I have to ask myself, what makes them think I can understand their opinion? On what do they base their word definitions, word usage, body language, et cetera?
When someone argues that we can’t understand word meaning, but they use words to make their argument, the person is mentally spinning in circles. For us to understand each other, a language (with word definitions) must be common between us. But if we establish common definitions of our words so a disagreement can be understood, then the basic point is proven.
Some intellectuals get to a point of analyzing the words of an author to a point that what is clear through common understanding becomes less and less clear with their analysis. This is done to the point that some intellectuals deny a written text or even that any language contains any meaning whatsoever. Unfortunately for them, if we can’t trust any language then we shouldn’t trust what they are saying either; their rules have to work both ways.

Some of you who have studied logic may recognize my contention that, “We understand each other’s words based on our common language.” In the world of Philosophy, a similar idea is called the Law of Identity. In essence, that law simply states that: Something is what it is. The Law of Identity is the positive expression of logic and one of the laws of reason discussed by Socrates.
There are other important points about language. We must recognize that our understanding of words is based on the context of the sentence, paragraph, and overall message in which the words are contained. For communications that were not given in our own language, we must additionally recognize the importance of the original language, time, and culture.

But let’s get back to the conversation I was originally telling you about between my friend and me. We were talking over lunch. I had listened to him explain his spiritual beliefs, and he had agreed that he would like to know the truth – if he were wrong. We had tried to begin with bible verses, but he didn’t believe the Bible was anything more than a book of stories and he didn’t think God existed to give us the Bible.
I really felt it was time to establish a foundation for our conversation. I started by acknowledging that I thought I understood where he was coming from. That is, I thought I understood what he said. I then explained that I wanted to start with what I thought was very basic, he agreed, but I knew he didn’t know what I was about to say.
Remembering the U.S. map and the original colonies brought to my mind the Declaration of Independence and the fact that there was such a thing as “self-evident truth”. We reviewed that second sentence in the Declaration and he understood I wanted to address what was self-evident.
I restarted and asked, “Would you agree we’ve been having a good conversation so far, in that we seem to have understood each other?”
He smiled, and said with a little laugh, “Yea, I think so.”
“That’s where I want to go next,” I said. “We’ve been using not just words, but a common language; this is the basis of what I believe to be a self-evident truth.” I summarized what I believed was self-evident: We understand each other’s words based on our common language.
He thought about this a bit and agreed that the thought just made sense. We talked a bit further about word definitions, the importance of understanding something when it was originally written in another language, how our understanding may change as we realize the author’s or speaker’s original time and culture, and how we best understand things in context. He felt we were on common ground so far.

Conclusion
I was watching a show where people were asked about “truth”. One woman was sitting at a blue picnic table and said, “Someone could say this table is red; they would be right because that would be their truth.” But she’s wrong; here’s why. If we’re speaking English to each other, the colors blue and red are defined to be certain hues (a hue is how an object reflects light). A person can spew forth all kinds of insensible gibberish, but if they want to be understood, they have to stick to established definitions.
Perhaps you don’t think I’m right. Think of it this way: If a park had three picnic tables, one blue, one yellow, and one red, and she told me to meet her at the blue picnic table, I would be thought color-blind or ignorant if I instead went to either the yellow table or the red table. The English words red and blue have certain definitions to prevent confusion. Someone may argue that anyone can say anything, but that doesn’t mean anyone will understand the person who doesn’t use a language as it is defined for the time.

I previously mentioned that the cover has a map of the U.S.A. and “six cups of coins”. I already explained why the map of the U.S.A., but now let me explain why “six”: In the chapter introduction, a word definition was important because I needed to answer my young son’s question of, “What is sex?” To answer his question correctly, I had to know what he was talking about. In that case, I had to know that he had mixed a German word into an English sentence. The definition of the German word he was asking about was different than the definition of the English word that sounded the same. The German word sex is translated into English as “six”. Therefore, let the “six” cups of silver remind you of this little story and what should be self-evident: We understand each other’s words based on our common language.

What does the Bible say?
Does the Bible support the concept that words have meaning? Of course it does, the Bible itself is a library of words, each word with a meaning. We understand these words based on the context of the sentence, paragraph, storyline, and overall scriptures. And we understand these words based on the original language, time, and culture.
Even people who don’t believe the Bible recognize the Bible has words and recognize that those words have meaning. Some people don’t like what the Bible says, but that just recognizes that the people do in fact think the words in the Bible have meaning.
I’ll leave this section with one verse, from the New Testament book of John, chapter 1, verse 1, which reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
This is a great verse because it allows us to realize that God gave us words because God is the word. We have to realize that without God we wouldn’t have even this first truth that we’re calling “self-evident”. It was God who spoke creation into existence.

Quick Review
On the front cover are pictures of a map of the United States of America and six cups of coins. These pictures remind us:
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America wrote a Declaration of Independence in which they refer to “self-evident truth”.
Sex is the German word that translates to “six” in English; it is used as a reminder that if we don’t know what language a person is speaking, we may not know the definition of the word they are using. This is important because: We understand each other’s words based on our common language.

Up Next
Find out why the cups.