The difficulties of cross cultural communication. [View all]

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Lately, I've been getting the strong feeling that some of the miscommunication between religious folks and atheists may result from this.

Sometimes, cross cultural communication can be like learning a new language.

As an atheist, I try to listen to what Christians and others say in their own religious language.

For an example, I'll take a recent post of mine.

I remember a Thanksgiving story.

It was back in 2006, I believe.

A small boy was riding with his mother in a car on Thanksgiving Day, when they got into a terrible accident.

The mother was killed, and the boy survived the crash, but was stranded all alone in the Arizona desert.

At some point, an undocumented immigrant named Jesus who was crossing into this country passed by, and stayed with the boy and protected him while trying to flag down somebody to help.

Eventually, he was able to get the attention of a Border patrol agent, and the boy was saved, and Jesus was deported.

I remember the boy's Aunt on TV thanking God (and Jesus!) while calling it a miracle.

Now, you're an atheist like me, so we both have to put on our thinking caps when we hear religious language. Just like we have to do in any other sort of cross cultural communication.

What do you think the boy's Aunt was calling a miracle?

Her nephew being saved by Jesus, or her sister being killed in an accident?

Accurate cross cultural communication requires a little bit of thoughtfulness and good will.

Otherwise, one can miss-translate things very badly.

The question is in bold.

How one answers may depend on ones ability to understand and comprehend religious language. It's an exercise in cross cultural communication and language skills for us atheists.

I'll be the first to admit that, as a mathematician, this is not my specialty.

But I think I know the correct answer.