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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Chris Laning wrote: > It sounds rather like such a person could have described himself as > both "protestant" and "catholic" (but not Roman). A bit mind-boggling > to those used to the modern usages! I should think that many things could be mind-boggling or confusing, if one does not either know or understand the nomenclature, or what the words mean, or how they are used--and in what context. Take "positive," which also means "having or expressing actual existence or quality as distinguished from deprivation or deficiency." In electrical science, electricity goes not from positive to negative, rather it goes from negative to positive. However, a positive balance in your bank account means that you actually do have money; a negative balance means that you not only do not have money, but you are "in the hole," before you even get up to being broke. If an electrical scientist makes a positive deposit of $20.00 in his bank account, does he now have 20 bucks less in the bank? So, in electricity, "positve" really means "negative," and "negative" really means "positive." So, yes, an electrical scientist can use the terms "positive" and "negative" to mean different things, depending upon his referent: money or electrical current. Terrill ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html