semantics and science

[LadyMage]

This is just something that bugs me, re-sparked by a commercial for a new sweetener

basically the the ad said that instead of a sweetener made from chemistry, its made by nature

Now I understand that the ad means chemistry as something done in a lab but...

Nature does chemistry too, all the time, every day, and has been doing it before we even existed, and that bugged me since by that definition, the sweetener should either be an element or should not exist in the first place

the word organic has the same trouble, since many people say food is grown organically, but guess what, organic means a compound with carbon in it. Since most things have carbon in it chemically, most things are organic, or if you want to go by the other definition, anything that is or was alive at one point, it still falls flat with me since the 'organic' food is just as organic as the 'non organically grown' food since they are both alive at one point

just something that bugs me to no end, can't they come up with a better name for organic food, and couldn't that ad say 'man made' or 'from a lab' instead?

[Greenday]

Artificial and natural are in more people's dictionaries than organic and inorganic. And as you pointed out, most people don't really know what organic actually means. It's just easier to use the colloquial meanings instead.

[Boozy]

There's no chemical difference between most "man-made" and "naturally grown" foods. It's like saying that IVF babies aren't real people because they were conceived out of utero in a lab.

[LadyMage]

There's no chemical difference between most "man-made" and "naturally grown" foods. It's like saying that IVF babies aren't real people because they were conceived out of utero in a lab.

yeah, but just saying chemistry really bugged me to no end, since that happens in nature as well as in a lab, which is worse

then again most people think science is out to kill them for some stupid reason so maybe I shouldn't be surprised

[Savannah]

Those misused words bug me, too! My dad has the best comeback for the "it's natural/made by nature!" one:

"Cyanide is natural."

[gremcint]

so is manure.

[Flyndaran]

You will take my synthetic aspartame sweetened diet Pepsi from my cold dead hands.
With the sheer volume I drink over many years, if it had any deleterious effects, I would be dead many times over by now.

[LewisLegion]

So is snake venom. And Nightshade, and mercury, and....

You get the idea.

[DrFaroohk]

That's like a lot of people's arguments for smoking weed, "it's all natural"...and basically so are heroine, cocaine, LSD and PCP. Of course, you can't just find a PCP plant and eat it to get high all by itself, ya gotta do stuff to it first....

[Nyoibo]

then again most people think science is out to kill them for some stupid reason so maybe I shouldn't be surprised

Not yet it's not, but give it time.

[LadyMage]

Not yet it's not, but give it time.

huh? you honestly think science will kill us all? please tell me you are kidding

[Nyoibo]

Not exactly, the misuse of it will, the same way that a gun will not kill someone, the person wielding it will.

[Greenday]

So is snake venom. And Nightshade, and mercury, and....

You get the idea.

Natural, yes.

Organic, negative.

[LadyMage]

Not exactly, the misuse of it will, the same way that a gun will not kill someone, the person wielding it will.

ah ok, but then that is anything when you think about it, even sushi

[Nyoibo]

I don't fear rice and raw fish destroying all life on this planet though.