Discussion
Liharev flirts with being both a nihilist and an atheist during his life, yet he never does ________ faith in God.
*This question is included in Nova Text Completions: Lesson Set, question #5
| (A) | affirm |
| (B) | ... |
| (C) | ... |
| (D) | ... |
| (E) | ... |
| (F) | ... |
The solution is
Posted: 08/02/2012 18:41
Slightly confused. Was Liharev an atheist at some point in his life, or should this be interpreted as he considered being an atheist? Scorn seems better, as Nihilists would be expected to scorn faith but wouldn't have to. An atheist would require loss of faith in God.
Posted: 08/02/2012 19:06
Or is he sentence saying he talked about being an atheist, but he never lost faith, therefore he wasn't really an atheist?
Posted: 08/02/2012 20:27
Jeremiah, I believe it's the latter of your thought process.
Posted: 08/02/2012 20:47
I appreciate your help entirely, but I think if the writers of the GRE were graded on their ability to communicate effectively, they'd score a 4/6 at most :)
Posted: 11/29/2012 10:01
Even I feel that either lose or scorn could be ok.... Here both make sense.... Unless someone knew of Liharev's life they could interpret either answers as the ideal one
Posted: 11/29/2012 11:05
Vaishnavi, I don't think we need to know of Liharev's life. The key words are "talked about", "atheist", "God", and "yet". "Yet" indicates the question is looking for a juxtaposition of opposites. "talked about" indicates that he was not really an atheist, which is the opposite of someone who has faith in God.
Posted: 03/14/2013 21:31
Talks about BEING a nihilist and an atheist DURING HIS LIFE shouldn't that mean he was an atheist- which DOESN'T believe in God? I.e. belief is lost? (don't mean this rudely, just couldn't italicize)
Posted: 03/19/2013 17:42
Caitlin, as Arcadia Admin pointed out, the keyword after the comma, "yet", indicates the question is looking for a juxtaposition of opposites. The opposite of his claim of being a nihilist and atheist means that he did not lose faith in God.
Posted: 07/16/2013 17:52
The "yet" could be in contrast to one's expectation that an atheist and a nihilist would scorn faith and yet doesn't.
Posted: 07/24/2013 17:08
I agree with what the other users have said. By definition an atheist does not believe in the existence god, therefore the answer cannot be B. This is a very poorly written question.
Posted: 07/24/2013 21:48
Adam, I am sorry but you may have misunderstood the question. Liharev TALKS about being a nihilist or an atheist. That's all he does, it's all just TALK. YET, or BUT or HOWEVER, in reality, he does not become an atheist. In other words, he NEVER loses faith in God. Just like I talk about leaving my girlfriend, but I never do.
Posted: 10/27/2013 16:03
And yet, with faith in god, we have only the word of the person at hand as evidence. You may talk about leaving your girlfriend, Joel, but there is or isn't physical evidence that you have done so. When liharev spoke of being an atheist, a standard interpretation would include that he had lost his faith in god. Unless you or the ets folks want to fly up to heaven to provide evidence that old liharev's faith is in tact, it seems to me like these folks make a good point and "scorn" would be a better answer. After all, he might have lost faith yet continue to respect those who have faith.