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Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

From:Christopher Wright <faceloran@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 11, 2003, 19:50
Yitzik palsalge:
>Aaargh. I didn't want to take part in this discussion because of the
Golden Rule
>"No cross no crown no green star", but still... I don't think evolution is >obvious, or has enough proofs. I don't want it taught "the only right
thing".
>Don't call it "theory". Let it be "a wide-spread hypothesis", ok?
No green star? But... it's so pretty... what does it refer to, exactly? A hypothesis is a guess based on observed evidence that can be objectively tested. How can you objectively test a historical possibility? Could I come up with an experiment to tell me whether Abraham Lincoln was the President of the US during the US Civil War? Could I gather objective data to prove that King Hammurabi created one of the first unified codes of law? Could I gather objective data to prove that the past is not a fiction created by my brain to account for a disparity between my mental state and my physical position? I have faith that my memories are correct, that what I observe is reality, that my teachers didn't lie to me as a matter of habit, that history is basically correct, and that my mind did not manufacture my personal experiences with God. I'm certain that all of you have faith that the subjective accounts of history are mostly accurate as to what really happened. ObConlang: in Sturnan, there are words for something that is certainly, absolutely true (referon); something that can be conjectured, heard on good authority, or is logically acceptable (faron len a okwi, "true in the eyes"); and something that is trusted as truth but cannot be proven (irdhan). Atomic theory would be faron len a okwi; some would claim that the veracity of the world is referon, whereas others insist it is merely irdhan; the same debate is given for Christianity.[1] ~Wright [1] It isn't Christianity, of course, since the Sturnan conworld doesn't interact with this world. It's just very similar to it, even more so than in the Chronicles of Narnia. PS: Since CS Lewis was a friend of JRR Tolkien, might Lewis have been a conlanger? Is there any evidence to support it (esp. in the _Out of the Silent Planet_ trilogy)?

Replies

Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>OT Green star
JS Bangs <jaspax@...>Lewis as a conlanger (was Re: OT More pens)
John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>
Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>Belief in Conlangs