{"id":34813,"date":"2024-07-12T14:17:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-language-is-growing-pessimistic\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T14:17:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:17:00","slug":"our-language-is-growing-pessimistic","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-language-is-growing-pessimistic\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Language Is Growing Pessimistic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t<em>The Financial Times<\/em> had a story on a fascinating study showing that our language has been growing more pessimistic. Whereas at the time of the scientific and industrial revolutions there was a shift towards a language with more frequent use of terms related to progress, in recent years there&rsquo;s been a shift towards words associated with caution, worry, and risk.<\/p>\n\n<p>The author John Burn-Murdoch writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>[Researchers] found a marked increase in the use of terms related to progress and innovation starting in the early 17th century. This supports the idea that &ldquo;a cultural evolution in the attitudes towards the potential of science&rdquo; [to promote the industrial revolution] and its economic take-off.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>[But] extending the same analysis to the present, a striking picture emerges: over the past 60 years the west has begun to shift away from the culture of progress, and towards one of caution, worry and risk-aversion, with economic growth slowing over the same period. The frequency of terms related to progress, improvement, and the future has dropped by about 25 percent since the 1960s, while those related to threats, risks and worries have become several times more common.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3406,3422,3726,3731,3736,3864,3977,4261,4337,4338,4637,4662,4849,5158,5204,5261,5263,5292,5304],"tax_ctp_topics":[396],"class_list":["post-34813","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-alertness","tax_ctp_tags-anxiety","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-danger","tax_ctp_tags-day-of-the-lord","tax_ctp_tags-end-times","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-death","tax_ctp_tags-instability","tax_ctp_tags-language","tax_ctp_tags-last-days","tax_ctp_tags-pessimism","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-risk","tax_ctp_tags-threats","tax_ctp_tags-uncertainty","tax_ctp_tags-warning","tax_ctp_tags-watchfulness","tax_ctp_tags-words","tax_ctp_tags-worry"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Language Is Growing Pessimistic - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-language-is-growing-pessimistic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Language Is Growing Pessimistic - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Financial Times had a story on a fascinating study showing that our language has been growing more pessimistic. 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