An important question raised by this interpretation is how mere symbols could exert material effects.

Kirk studied the cracked seal for a moment, but quickly dismissed it as a mere symbol.

But to most who lived through the bad years, the mere symbols of rebirth bring lasting joy.

It is the interaction of individuals who are more than mere symbols that breathes life into her fiction.

They may be mere symbols, but at such times symbols become important.

I'm only a novice, and my own gammadion is a mere symbol without magical power.

I parted from him as if he were a mere symbol.

Though he knew it to be a mere symbol, its semblance of a living, intelligent (if ugly) entity was too strong.

Ever have we been a secondary force, mere symbols of your misdeeds.

Additionally Lutherans reject the idea that communion is a mere symbol or memorial.