Let me give you an example: am I a not-man?

Well, as a woman it is true that I am not a man. But if you try to define me as a not-man to my face, you are going to rapidly have one less eye-ball. I mean men have been trying really hard for a long, long time to define women as not-men. It’s called misogyny. When you set up a definition as a negative, you set the terms of the discourse in the hands of your “opponent.” If I defined myself as a not-man, I have then said that men are the “norm” and I am to measure myself against that standard – even if I rebel, fight, hiss and spit.

Men do not get to define me. Not no how. I define myself based on my own experiences, my own behaviours, my own desires, my own society.

(If you are a man reading this – try defining yourself in public as a not-woman for a week. Just a week. See what happens.)

In just the same way, theists should not get to define the terms of discourse for all of us with respect to interpreting human life. And that is what happens if you define yourself as their opponent.

I am not a not-man. I am a woman. There is a profound difference in power with the two definitions. Take a lesson from feminism; define yourself as something positive and not as someone else’s opponent, because if you do that you are going to have to carry them everywhere for fear that you will cease to exist should they go away.

Ma.gi (mā’ji) n.pl, sing. Ma’gus (-gəs) [L., pl. of magus < Gr. Per. Magus: for IE. base see MAY] 1. priests of ancient Media and Persia 2. Douay Bible the wise men from the East who brought gifts to the infant Jesus: Matt. 2:1-13 –Ma’gi-an (-jē ən) adj., n.

mag.ic (connotative definitions)
1. “Literature is dangerous, it is a kind of magic.” (Iris Murdoch)
2. “…contains an ‘irreducible element’…, something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as we know them.” (Wendy B. Faris; the phrase “irreducible element” is said to be taken from Young and Hallaman’s Magical Realist Fiction)
3. “I also like preparing for the change of seasons. For example, that maniacal flurry of tidying and organizing we refer to as “spring cleaning” some how seems to tug the warm weather a little close. House magic is what I call it.” (Diane Ackerman)
4. “When mandrake is dug from the earth, it should be placed in a spring immediately, for a day and a night, so that every evil and contrary humor is expelled from it, and it has no more power for magic and phantasms. But if it is pulled from the earth, and set aside with earth sticking to it, and not cleansed in the spring water, it is harmful for many injurious acts of magic and for delusions, just as many evils were at one time done with idols.” (Hildegard von Bingen)
5. “Magic often lurks where few suspect it, and, by the opposite token, that magic seldom lurks where many suspect it.” (Douglas R. Horstadter)

mag.ic (travelling definitions)
1. Magic is often thought of as the intentional use of natural energy to accomplish some specific goal.
2. Consequently, magic is usually practiced with the intent of bringing the world into line with the practitioner’s desire.
3. Yes. But. As magical training proceeds, magic becomes the practice of utilizing radical empathy to meet specific goals.
4. In my experience, because of the consequences of the development of radical empathy, the dedicated practice of magic actually ends up bringing the practitioner in line with the world.

Definitions for “magic” and “magi” from: New World Dictionary of the American Language Students Edition Prentice-Hall. David B. Guralnik, Editor in Chief. Published in 1981 by Simon & Schuster.

rad.i.cal (rad’i k’l) adj. [<LL. < Lm radicis, genitive of radix, ROOT] 1. a) of, from, or going to the root or source; fundamental; basic [a radical principle] b) extreme; thorough [a radical change in one’s life] 2. a) favoring basic or extreme change, as in the social or economic structure b) [R-] designating or of any of various modern political parties, as in Europe ranging from moderate to conservative –n. 1. a) a basic part of something b) a fundamental 2. a) a person having radical views b) [R-] a member of a Radical party 3 Chem. A group of two or more atoms that acts as a single atom and goes through a reaction unchanged, or is replaced by a single atom 4. Math. a) an expression showing that a root is to be figured b) same as RADICAL SIGN

rad.i.cal em.path.y
1. an emergent property of the social needs and the biological organization and limitations of the human being
2. the ability to “read” the world and assess it accurately by the way it makes the body feel
3. often felt as “moving out” from the world of “me”, into the world of “I” “we” and “it”
4. often interpreted as a “mystical experience” (and all that phrase encodes within any particular culture or group)
5. is simultaneously used as a noun describing a state (when it is perceived as subjective [as coming from within the body]), a verb when describing a task or responsibility (when it is perceived as relational [coming from the space between the relating beings]) and an ethic (when perceived objectively [coming from without the being])
6. our newest, and therefore weakest, evolutionary gift and therefore a function of training—Just as the capacity of language is coded into a child by birth, language cannot develop without socialization, so radical empathy is coded into us (probably in a rudimentary way) but can only be activated by training.

Definitions “radical” and “empathy” from: New World Dictionary of the American Language Students Edition Prentice-Hall. David B. Guralnik, Editor in Chief. Published in 1981 by Simon & Schuster.