Re: Theology (was Re: Trobriand Island masses)

[John Cowan <cowan@locke.ccil.org>]

la lojbab. cusku di'e

> > Hmmm.  Except for the Lord's Prayer and a chunk of
> > Genesis, we don't have much theological text in Lojban.  It would be a
> > worthy addition to the corpus, and then someone can tackle Aquinas (xo
> > {angels} ka'e dansu cpana lo pijne jipno).

la xorxes. cusku di'e

> The angels are another good example. The lujvo list gives {notcrida} for
> angel, then:
>
>         lei xo notcrida ka'e dansu cpana lo pijne jipno
>         The mass of how many angels can dance on a pin's head?
>
> It wouldn't be of interest to ask {xo le notcrida}, (how many of the
> angels) can each dance there, probably all of them can. The question
> of theological interest is how many can do it together, so we have
> to use masses. Another way of putting the question might be
> {le notcrida xomei}, which is also a mass of angels.

The real theological question, though, is:

        lu'i ro lo notcrida poi cabna dansu cpana lo pijne jipno
                cu cimni ?gi'i nalcimni
        The-set-of all angels which simultaneously dance upon a pin head
                is infinite or finite?

In other words:

        xu lo notcrida fasnu
        Is it true that an angel is an event in space-time? (modern version)
        Is it true that angels are substances? (Scholastic version)

--
John Cowan                                              cowan@ccil.org
                        e'osai ko sarji la lojban.