Why Do People Swear?

I recently came across an article suggesting a link between higher-than-average intelligence and swearing. Since this contradicts what is called in linguistics the poverty of vocabulary (POV) hypothesis, I decided to investigate this further.

The POV hypothesis says that if a person is lacking in vocabulary, he or she is likely to fill in the conversational gaps with curse words. Based on my experience with a wide variety of people throughout my life, this always made sense to me. Regarding the research suggesting a link between high intelligence and swearing, it is based on a research study showing a correlation between high general-vocabulary scores and high taboo-word scores. Timothy Jay, professor emeritus of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, says, “People that are good at language are good at generating a swearing vocabulary.” To his credit, he adds, “Having the strategies to know where and when it’s appropriate to swear and when it’s not is a social cognitive skill.” In other words, he’s speaking of social intelligence, which includes knowing your “audience.” I would say this is qualitatively different from people who indiscriminately pepper their conversation with swear words, especially F-bombs; those who do that give strong confirmation of the POV hypothesis. However, I’m not suggesting that we selectively swear in order to show how intelligent we are!

There are at least five suggested benefits of swearing in an article by Sandee LaMotte:

1. A possible link between swearing and intelligence. See above.

2. A possible link between swearing and honesty. Some researchers have found that people who curse more also lie less on an interpersonal level. While I understand the desire for honesty, I would not recommend swearing to emphasize it; do we really need to swear in order to make people more likely to believe us? Won’t that make them less likely to believe us when we don’t swear?

3. Profanity improves pain tolerance. For example, “People on bikes who swore while pedaling against resistance had more power and strength than people who used ‘neutral’ words.” Similarly, if you pinch your finger in a door, you “may well feel less pain” if you shout an obscenity than a “neutral” word. These situations may make us want to swear, and I admit I have done so in situations similar to pinching a finger in a door, but I’m not proud of it.

4. Swearing is a sign of creativity. This is somewhat similar to the supposed link between swearing and intelligence; it is largely based on research with people who have had strokes and/or who have dementia, but I find the link to creativity very tenuous, at best. I would add that two of my brothers prayed before they developed dementia (very strong in my family history) that they would not dishonor God if they developed it; they both did develop dementia, but I never heard either of them swear during it. I have already prayed the same for myself.

5. Throwing expletives rather than punches. In other words, verbally assaulting rather than physically assaulting someone. While I would say there may be limited value in this, verbal assaults can quickly escalate into physical ones.

The aforementioned article is focused, frankly, on excusing profanity. I came across another article (by John-Erik Jordan), however, that treats the phenomenon of swearing in a different manner by asking why people swear. Here’s the link: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/why-do-we-swear

1. Catharsis. In other words, swearing provides an emotional release.

2. Insult, abuse, and exclusion. Unlike LaMotte (in the first article), Jordan does not try to excuse “throwing expletives” at people. Instead, he says that curse words “crank up the mean factor.” And it bears repeating: verbal assaults (and non-verbal ones, like giving someone the finger) can quickly escalate into physical ones.

3. Group solidarity. I have noticed this repeatedly throughout my life: swearing can be a form of bonding. It reminds me of when my son and three of his best friends in high school used to greet each other by saying, “Hey, stupid.” No, “stupid” is not a swear word, but it is akin to what Jordan mentions.

4. Style and emphasis. As Jordan puts it, “Swear words add emotion and urgency to otherwise neutral sentences.” Another way to put this is what I would call “shock value.”

Jordan’s article is insightful because rather than trying to excuse swearing, he gives underlying reasons why people do it. On a fundamental level, I think that most people understand that swearing can be offensive to others; at a minimum, understanding your “audience,” which I mentioned earlier, should be a high priority when choosing whether to swear or not.

Here are a couple of Bible verses related to this issue. Ephesians 5:4 says, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” Colossians 3:8 tells us: “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” I have written more about this topic here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2022/09/08/watch-your-language/

As Christians, let’s not use taboo words–and I certainly include myself in this. There are plenty of other words which we can use to express ourselves instead. Even though we will offend other people at times regardless of our intentions, at least we won’t offend them unnecessarily with careless profanity.

Is Salvation Pass/Fail?

If you have taken college/university courses, you have probably had the option of taking some classes (particularly electives) as Pass/Fail rather than receiving a letter grade (A, B, C, D, F). I got my Bachelor’s degree from a Christian college, and a couple of my favorite professors periodically asked somewhat provocative questions, like the one in the title of this post. As our professor (in an Education class) led us in the discussion, my classmates and I were initially unanimous that the answer was “Yes.” In other words, either you’re saved and will spend eternity with the Lord in heaven, or you’re not and you will spend eternity apart from Him in hell. This has always been true! However, as the best professors do, ours asked us to dive deeper. One of my classmates then mentioned the concept of degrees (amounts and/or kinds) of reward (in heaven) as well as degrees of punishment (in hell).

I was a young Christian at the time, and although I had heard of the “degree” concept, I hadn’t studied it. As my classmates and I discussed it and then later studied it, I found myself rather fascinated. The first Scripture passage that I thought of was the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, where a man gives three servants different amounts of money, each according to his ability. The first man receives five talents, the second man two talents, and the third man one talent. The first two servants double the amount that was given to them, while the third one buries his talent in the ground. When the master returns, he commends the first two for their faithfulness but condemns the third one, calling him a “wicked, lazy servant” (verse 26). Then, in verse 30, he says, “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those of you who are familiar with the Bible will recognize this verse as referring to hell.

Scholars are not unanimous in their interpretation of this parable as far as degrees of reward in heaven are concerned. However, there are other passages that suggest this concept. For example, in Mark 10:35-40, James and John ask Jesus to give them special seats of honor in the kingdom, one on Jesus’ right and the other on His left. Jesus’ reply in verse 40: “But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” Notice that Jesus does not deny that these special places exist, but that the Father will give them to those that He has chosen. Jesus also speaks of laying up treasures in heaven in Matthew 6:20: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Not all believers store up the same amount of “treasure,” it seems to me. Some scholars have also referred to verses like 1 Corinthians 3:8 in support of degrees of reward in heaven: “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” If you continue reading verses 9-15, it will become even clearer.

I should add that some have referred to the parable in Matthew 20:1-15 as an argument for the idea that all believers will have the same rewards in heaven. In this parable, a landowner hires men at five different times of the day to work for him–but he pays the men hired near the end of the day the same as the men who had been working hard all day. In verses 10-11, we read: “So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.” However, since grumbling is a sin, and there is no sin in heaven, this interpretation of equal rewards in heaven (based on this parable) can’t be true. Many Bible scholars have rightly said that this parable is not about equality of rewards in heaven, but instead symbolizes the Jews (God’s chosen people in the Old Testament) grumbling against the Gentiles, who (for the most part) received the message of salvation much later than the Jews. The equal “payment” referred to in this parable probably refers to salvation, which every believer receives.

As I have studied this concept of degrees of reward and punishment, if anything, the Bible is even more straightforward about degrees of punishment in hell. For example, in Matthew 11:21-24, Jesus denounces the people of three Jewish cities that had not repented: “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.  But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” Jesus says that the people of those three Jewish cities will be judged more harshly than the people of the three wicked Gentile cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom.

Another very clear example of degrees of punishment in hell is in Luke 12:47-48, where Jesus says, “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Just in case we might think that these two verses refer to believers, the end of verse 46 makes it clear that they do not: “He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.”

I admit that when my classmates and I first discussed this concept of degrees of reward and punishment all those years ago, I felt uneasy about degrees of heavenly reward because I thought, “But won’t that make believers with fewer rewards jealous or envious of those with more rewards?” I eventually came to realize that the answer is “No” because there won’t be any sin in heaven–and envy is sin! (Refer to the parable (above) about the vineyard workers hired at different times of the day.) We will experience pure joy in the presence of all our brothers and sisters, whether they have more rewards or fewer than us. Maybe–and this is only speculation on my part–we won’t even be aware of those differing “degrees.”

If you are reading this and have not yet put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, my prayer is that you will do it soon, even today. You will eventually experience not only the incredible blessings of heaven, but also the peace and joy that only Jesus can give in this life.

Feel Like a Number

When I bought my first car at age 17, I listened to rock music whenever I was driving. My favorite bands were Kansas and Styx, but naturally, I heard plenty of other bands and artists as well. One of them was Bob Seger; even though I wasn’t a big fan, there are two of his songs that have stuck with me all these years. One of them is called “Feel Like a Number” (1978), which you can listen to the live version of here: https://www.bobseger.com/video/feel-number-liveremastered/ Here are the lyrics:

I take my card and I stand in line
To make a buck I work overtime
Dear Sir letters keep coming in the mail

I work my back till it’s racked with pain
The boss can’t even recall my name
I show up late and I’m docked
It never fails

I feel like just another
Spoke in a great big wheel
Like a tiny blade of grass
In a great big field, whoa

To workers I’m just another drone
To Ma Bell I’m just another phone
I’m just another statistic on a sheet

To teachers I’m just another child
To IRS I’m another file
I’m just another consensus on the street

Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey it’s me

And I feel like a number
Feel like a number
Feel like a stranger
A stranger in this land

I feel like a number
I’m not a number
I’m not a number
Damn it, I’m a man
I said I’m a man

Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey, it’s me

And I feel like a number
Feel like a number
Feel like a stranger
A stranger in this land

I feel like a number
I’m not a number
I’m not a number
Damn it, I’m a man

I feel like a…

Before Seger rose to fame, he worked in a series of factories, including on a Ford auto assembly line; this is reflected in several of the lyrics: “I take a card and stand in line” refers to taking your time card and waiting in line to “punch the clock;” I also had Seger’s experience in several different jobs, including as a welder one summer. While employers still use time clocks, the technology has evolved, of course, especially the use of digital time clocks. I love Seger’s description of feeling like a “spoke in a great big wheel” and a “tiny blade of grass in a great big field.” Actually, I love all of his analogies; depending on your age, you may identify with some more than others, but I think most people can appreciate being just “another file” to the IRS. And the best analogy of all is in the title and repeated several times: “feel like a number.” We all have numbers that identify us; in the U.S., social security, driver’s license, passport, and employee numbers come to mind. Very temporary ones, such as “wait-in-line” numbers on fast-food receipts from my just-finished trip, also come to mind, as do less-temporary ones, such as account numbers.

Although I had spent all of my life up to age 18 (and a few years beyond) in small towns where I knew others and was known, the lyrics of this song really resonated with me. If I were to choose one word to sum up Bob Seger’s feeling in this song–and to some degree mine at the time–it’s alienation. This means feeling like you don’t belong and that other people don’t really understand you. (Seger says, “I feel like a stranger in this land.”) As I have reflected on this, I think my feeling at that time had a lot to do with my not becoming a Christian until I was 20, two years after this song came out. At that time, the faith that I had grown up with and that I was immersed in became my own; it wasn’t just head knowledge anymore, but had penetrated my heart. I finally began to understand that my Creator loved me and that I could have a relationship with Him. It took a while, though, because three years later, when a friend of mine told me she had “had a great time with the Boss” (praying to the Lord) that morning, I still had only a vague understanding of what that meant. The following year, however, when I figured out what the Lord wanted me to do and where He wanted me to do it–at least for the next few years–I understood it much better.

I definitely don’t feel like a number anymore, but I often find myself at odds with the culture and in that sense feeling alienated, but in a different way. I should add that after living and working in another culture overseas in my younger adult years, I think I would find myself at odds no matter where I was! Someone has wisely said that every culture expresses various sins in ways specific to that particular culture.

Interestingly, the New Testament speaks of God’s people as aliens. 1 Peter 2:11 says, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” On the other hand, Ephesians 2:19 says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” So, God’s people are aliens in regard to this world, but no longer aliens in regard to our being part of God’s family. I think that these verses together express my feeling that while I may find myself at odds with the culture (the world), at the same time I have found belonging as one of God’s people. Hebrews 11:13-16 beautifully expresses the change from being part of any country in this world to (eventually) being part of a heavenly one with a heavenly city: the new Jerusalem. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

If you feel alienated–maybe you even feel like a number at times!–that will change if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. He knows and understands you even better than you understand yourself. You will find true belonging through knowing Him (and being known) as well as through fellowship with other believers. That has been my experience, and it can be yours as well.

Do Women Athletes Support Trans Women in Women’s Sports?

Over the past few days, Riley Gaines (a former swimmer) and Simone Biles (the famous medal-winning (11 total in the Olympics) gymnast) have been feuding over the issue of trans women in women’s sports. Yesterday, to her credit, Biles apologized for making their disagreement personal. While she has not quite said so directly, Biles has expressed support for transgender athletes, including yesterday, when she said she wants “rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition.” (More on fairness later.) Gaines, on the other hand, has become outspoken against such “inclusion” since tying with Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle final at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Thomas is biologically male but identifies as a woman, which allowed him to compete as a woman in that event. He went on to win the 500-yard freestyle in the same championships.

Biles is now 28 years old and has hinted at retiring soon; for a gymnast, she is past her prime. I have also noticed some other well-known female athletes who have come out in support of trans women in women’s sports. Megan Rapinoe, now-retired women’s soccer star, expressed support for trans youth, particularly trans girls in girl’s sports, in schools in 2020 via a court filing; she has become even more vocal and has broadened her support to include adult trans women in women’s sports since retiring in 2023, shortly after the women’s World Cup.

Another well-known athlete, WNBA star Candace Parker, expressed public support for the same cause in 2020 via the same court filing; like Rapinoe, she has broadened her support to include trans women in women’s sports, especially since her retirement, which happened in 2024.

A third well-known athlete, tennis star Billie Jean King (now 81), was another signatory to the same court filing that Rapinoe and Parker signed in 2020.

The pattern seems obvious: well-known women athletes who have already made their mark professionally and who are already retired, or near retirement, are expressing their public support for trans women in women’s sports. While there have been other less-famous women athletes who have expressed their support as well, I doubt that there are many (if any) young women athletes who are in favor of it; it’s understandable, of course, that they would be reluctant to express their opposition to it, however, for fear of being ostracized.

On the other hand, there have also been well-known women athletes who have expressed their opposition to trans women in women’s sports, some more directly than others. Here’s an indirect example: Now-retired tennis great Serena Williams said in an interview with David Letterman in 2013, “If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0. The men are a lot faster, and they serve harder. They hit harder. It’s just a different game.” Murray had recently challenged her to an exhibition match. (Williams retired in 2022.)

Tennis great Martina Navratilova, now 68, has been very vocal in her opposition to trans women in women’s sports. In February of this year, she wrote in a post on X, “I hate that the Democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women’s sports being for females only.” Five days ago, also in a post on X, she wrote, “Riley [Gaines] is MAGA and I couldn’t disagree with her more on politics but on keeping sports safe and fair for girls and women I agree with her. As most people, republicans democrats and everything in between do also.”

In her second post, Navratilova mentions the two primary issues regarding trans women in women’s sports: safety and fairness. When Payton McNabb was 17, she suffered severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms after being hit in the face by a volleyball during a 2023 match; the ball was spiked by a trans girl. Another aspect of safety revolves around the issue of women (and girls) who have been forced to share the same locker room with trans women; the reason we know that Lia Thomas is biologically male is because Riley Gaines and other women saw him naked; the women, of course, felt unsafe.

The other issue Navratilova mentioned is fairness. I came across a rather startling UN Report in an article by Emily Crane from Oct. 23, 2024; the report was titled “Violence against women and girls in sports,” and it said that, “By 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.” It added, “The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males.” There have also been trans women who have “broken records” while competing in women’s sports. On January 26, 2024, track-and-field athlete Sadie Schreiner, a trans woman, broke two records in the Atlantic Region Championship. Hopefully, these “records” and others like them will one day be expunged from the record books.

A recent (April 30 of this year) poll by NBC news found that 75% of Americans agree with Martina Navratilova: trans women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports. Those who publicly express that trans women should be allowed to participate in women’s sports are the favored ones in our ultra-tolerant society, while those who express their opposition to such “inclusion” tend to be attacked; just ask Riley Gaines. My solution to this issue is to have two additional, separate categories in sports: trans women and trans men. In other words, let trans women compete, but only against other trans women, and the same for trans men. I doubt that this would ever be implemented because it would be seen as “exclusionary.”

As I’ve written before elsewhere, here’s what the Bible tells us about men and women: Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God has made each of us as either a male or a female, and He never, ever makes a mistake.

I fear for those who identify as the opposite gender. If that is you, I pray that you will come to understand who God is and that if you trust Him, He will save you and give you contentment as the person, including your sex at birth, that He made you to be.

Does God Need Us?

I recently overheard someone say that God needs us. I didn’t hear enough to get the context of it and why he believes this, but it’s not the first time I’ve read or heard this, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, either.

Another way of asking this question is: Why did God create everything, including us? When I’ve heard or read that God needs us, the reasoning has often been something like this: God must have been lonely and therefore sad before He started creating; He created everything, including human beings, so that He could have fellowship. This line of thinking has usually come from believers. I’ve also come across darker reasoning, from non-Christians: God needed to be worshiped, and before He started His work of creating, there was nothing and no one to give Him that worship; He is some kind of megalomaniac, like the Greek “gods” Zeus and Poseidon.

I think that these kinds of thinking are in large part related to the desire of us human beings to understand God better; since our emotions are an important part of who we are, we try to imagine what God’s emotions are like. For example, I have a good friend who once asked me how God feels about people in hell. My answer was that I don’t know, but that people in hell are experiencing the just consequences of their not believing in and trusting God while they still had the chance.

There is a theological term, aseity, which refers to God’s self-sufficiency; this means, among other things, that God does not need anything or anyone. He is autonomous and is not dependent on anything for His own existence. At the same time, however, God has always had fellowship, and that is the mystery of the Trinity: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. We see this already in the first chapter of the Bible, where we read in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Notice “us” and “our” in this verse, which refers to the three Persons that God is. He has always had fellowship, which I think should help people who have concerns about God’s supposed “loneliness” before he began creating.

So, why did God create us? Isaiah 43:6-7 answers this question very directly: “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God created everything, including us, for His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Indeed, that is our ultimate purpose: to glorify God. We are able to do this because of Him, as Philippians 2:13 says: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Revelation 4:11 expresses this in a similar way: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” The King James Version expresses the last part even better: “and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” God created everything for His pleasure; in other words, it pleased Him to create the world and everything in it, including us.

Of all the Bible verses I came across in studying the question of whether God needs us, I think that Acts 17:24-25 answers it most directly: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Notice that important phrase in relation to this question: “as if he needed anything.” In other words, God does not need anything, including us!

The Biblical truth that God does not need us may be cause for sadness for some who are reading this, but Matthew Barrett in a Tabletalk magazine article from 2019 expresses why we should be very thankful that God doesn’t need us: “It is precisely because God is free from creation that He is able to save lost sinners like you and me. If God were a needy God, He would need our help just as much as we need His. What good news it is, then, that the gospel depends on a God who does not depend on us.” God is able to save us precisely because of His complete self-sufficiency; He does not need us, but we desperately need Him. If you have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, my prayer is that you will do so today.