# The Big Bang's Trinity?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bangs-trinity/609198>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 11, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bangs-trinity/609198 "2012-01-11T19:41:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 40

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bangs-trinity/609198/40 "2012-01-12T02:12:47Z")

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> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Please provide some support for your assertion that “postulated” is another word for “faith.”

Too bad you asked, because you played into **Secondhand Lion** ’s hand. (Paw?) It looks to me like he deliberately chose a word that, if you squint, could be taken as a scientific word for faith. The problem, **Secondhand Lion** , is that you’re misrepresenting what the word means. “To postulate” generally means you’re taking a particular concept as a given so you can explore its implications or as something that has to be true in order for other things to be true. The second definition makes that clearer, and so does the noun form, which you didn’t quote in the first place. Here are two Dopers using “postulate” as it’s actually intended:

> [@An earth the size of jupiter](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-earth-the-size-of-jupiter/608901/13):
>
> You could just postulate an artificial planet; this thread made me think of the old novel [The World Is Round](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Round), set on a hollow artificial world much larger than an Earth type planet.

> [@Jesus Could Not Rise If He Was Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-could-not-rise-if-he-was-dead/608614/28):
>
> If he could create the world with rule set “x”, I see no reason to postulate that couldn’t, at a later date, add rule “y” to rule set “x”.

And why is “postulate” the word you’re focused on? Why not “hypothesize:”

> [@](#):
>
> hy·poth·e·size  
>    [hahy-poth-uh-sahyz, hi-] Show IPA verb, -sized, -siz·ing.  
> verb (used without object)
> 
> 1. to form a hypothesis.
> 
> verb (used with object)  
> 2. to assume by hypothesis.

Nothing about faith in there. Or theorize:

> [@](#):
>
> the·o·rize  
>    [thee-uh-rahyz, theer-ahyz] Show IPA verb, -rized, -riz·ing.  
> verb (used without object)
> 
> 1. to form a theory or theories.
> 
> verb (used with object)  
> 2. to form a theory or theories about.

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