Still not getting you. Christian in the case of phrases like "Christian book store " or “Christian music” are specifically not going for specificity. They are purposefully broad terms and useful at that. As I asked you before, do you have the same objection to the word “European” when used as an adjective?
See how hard it is? I mean to say “is believed uniquely by all Christians?”
Well, I will let others hash out the very exacting grammar points, but this is simply incorrect. Diamonds are not rare at all. They are a manipulated market, and therefore have an inflated value.
Tris
I think it was Wittgenstein who talked about how it’s impossible to define something as straightforward as a chair such that everything we’d call “chair” would fit the definition, and nothing we wouldn’t call “chair” would fit the definition.
Go ahead and try it. While you do so, consider a comfortable rock in the forest, a chair in a dollhouse, an electric chair, a bean bag, a car seat.
The impossibility of defining words precisely does not, however, render language useless. If I say, “Pull up a chair and sit down,” my second-graders immediately know what to do. They don’t pull up a rock, they don’t grab a dollhouse chair, they don’t worry that I’m going to execute them.
Your objection to the use of Christian as an adjective seems to be a very small bit of what Wittgenstein observed: you’re noticing that “Christian,” like “chair,” cannot be defined with a bright-line border such that everything that we consider to match the word fits inside it and nothing else does. But you need to take the next step.
First, realize that this same principle applies to “Christian” as a noun. I know some folks that think we are all the children of God. Accordingly, Mao Tse Tong, Yanni, and Jesus are all sons of God. Are they Christian? I also know folks who consider themselves Christian because they think that Jesus was the wisest, kindest man who ever lived, and because they try to live their lives according to his precepts, but they aren’t convinced that the whole “Son of God” business should be taken literally. Are they less Christian than the aforementioned pantheists?
Second, realize that imprecision is inherent in natural language. You’ll never define a term with utter precision, nor will you ever utter a sentence that is absolutely precise in every respect. (If you doubt that, just take one sample word from the previous sentence–“sentence”–and look into the absolutely infuriatingly vague definition linguists use for the word).
Third, realize that, despite the endemic imprecision of language, the world’s not going to end. In fact, it isn’t remotely a problem. We manage to continue speaking to one another and communicating our meanings well enough even with the imperfect tool we use.