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Although he was being a bit harsh, the comment made did seem abit rude in the first place. The OP was stating something serious to him and was asking questions, not asking someone's personal beliefs without backing them up.
I mean, he probably took it like someone asking about something specific about the Illuminati and someone goes
" I'm a normal person, I don't believe in the Illuminati. "
The simple fact that THAT doesn't even need to be posted considering he isn't asking for that supports my claim.
Sure, we can argue on mental handi-caps and evolution and if they tie or not. But, this isn't the place to argue about evolution. We've already had that happen once and it NEVER ends nicely.

Word

This is what I do not like about English. People use english and abuse it to make a word more enjoyable to hear. Words like Shell shock is now "Post traumatic stress disorder" Dying is now "Passing away." The secretary of war is now the "Secretary of defense. And retarded is going the same way. It used to be stupid, then it became retarded, then mentally retarded and now it's "Mentally handicapped," If someone is retarded, they are ******** retarded and if you say someone is mentally handicapped then you are undertoning the seriousness of it.

Jesus, the people in this guild can be outright pricks!

I know the levels of "retardation" thank you very much, I work with special needs adults all the time. One of the reasons various conjugations of "retardation" are no longer used are because of how overly abused it is.

"Thats retarded!" "You're retarded!"

It's used now as an insult. And those of us who actually care about persons with special needs dont need to use what is interpreted as an insulting term to them.

Also: Languages are ever changing. Thats how it is. We out grow words and terms and replace them.It's not just English....all languages change over time.

You're literally retarding your language by not evolving it.

Now let's look at mental retardation. Retardation means to be held back; move at a slower rate. This would not be the case with those with "lower" mental functions (I say that lightly I don't belive they are lower I belive they are just different). They are not moving at a slower rate; if this is true they can catch up but they don't; they plateau at their functioning level.

So using the word retarded is actually using the incorrect word. It's not a case of political correctness it's a case of semantics.

Just like shell shock. Were they shocked by shells going off; only? Or were they exposed to an overall traumatic experiance which affected the way they handle stress?

Evolution & Christianity DO cause problems. What you are trying to say is that SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST & Christianity can mix.

Here's the issue of Evolution V. Christianity: The Lord has created every animal on Earth with singular purposes. This being that an ape can not simply "evolve", or "transform" if you will, into a human being. Yahweh has created the homo sapien individually, in his own image. Evoultion states that God would then have to look like an ape, or better yet, the being that the ape evolved from before then, and so on. Animals can not simply change their state all together.

YET: survival of the fittest can occur. This is possible in the sense that (for science's sake, let's use the Darwin example) if there were birds that ate ground nuts on an island, the birds with the longer beaks naturally can reach the nut easier, better, and more efficient, thus living longer than the short beaked birds, which makes them capable of passing this trait along to their off-spring.

Now, the problem I personally have with evolution is:
1) Where does it end? Where did the molecules from so long ago come from? Did they just "appear out of thin air"?
2) How can everything happen out of "coincidence"? Trees & Animals exist in such a cycle, a perfect cycle where we live off of them, and they live off of us. How can that be just a coincidence?

I also have an issue with people calling evolution a "fact". That it is "scientifically proven". It is called the evolution THEORY for a reason. It is just as factual as believing in a God.



Now, on a brighter note, I have a bit of hilarity towards Charles Darwin. Darwin preached Survival of the Fittest, boasting on how the strongest survive to make off-spring, and the weak die off. Charles Darwin ended up marrying his cousin, and producing 10 children, 3 of which that died (2 in infancy, the other at age 10). Whenever one would turn ill, he was afraid that it was the result of the inbreeding that occured with him and his cousin/wife. How is that for "survival of the fittest"? Hahaha.

Shell Shock & Mental Retardation are both just created by the public to dumb down the context of the disorder. Sort of like a lady bug. If I told you that there were a ton of Coleoptera Coccinellidaes on the ceiling, you would be dumb founded. Therefore, we came up with the word "Lady Bug". I'm sure there are male lady bugs as well.

Although we shouldn't use the word "Retard" because it is "politically incorrect", it doesn't mean that when it is said to describe a mentally disabled person that we should get too offended. It is easier for a person to say someone is "retarded" as opposed to "mentally handicapped", but in that sense, the person should at least say "slow".

On the flip side, we have outlawed the use of calling someone a "******" as well. The word, in itself, causes fear to many people and people freak out. The context of the word "******" is a person who is ignorant. The result of this slang was used to call slaves back in the day, who were predominantly black. The word carried on to describe the black community even after they became educated, therefore it was offensive and later turned out to be considered a "bad word". Does this mean we shouldn't use the word at all? Certaintly not.

Conclusively, what I am trying to say is no, you should not use to word "retard" to describe someone mentally incapable of learning at the same rate as others, because it has become "offensive". This does not mean the word is wrongfully used though. The word "retard" means to hinder, or at a slow pace, in which mentally handicapped people are. It's all in context.
People have a right to be offended about being called a "******" because it is not correct in any sense; they are educated beings who are self-effecient. Whoever, people shouldn't get offended over the use of the word retard because it is correct, however, if people find it so offensive, just try not to use it. There are other words to use to describe a person.




EDIT: I reread Azkeel's statement & my own and I think, in combination, I basically just said that the mentally disabled should be called "niggers". xd Oops.