Subject: [lojban] Specific example of Sapir-Whorf in English OR How Lojban made me think more clearly

From: "Avital Oliver" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 10:33:34 -0500

"There's nothing wrong with homosexuals, it just isn't supposed to be".

I assuming "supposed" == "meant" (you shall soon see why I prefer to explain
using the word "meant"). Sentences similar to these are heard quite often by
me, and they make me furious. What does "meant to be" mean?

My Lojban way of thinking made me think of the term "meant to be" and I
realized that it is actually a brivla:

MEANT_TO_BE: x1 meant for x2 to be

Thus, "homosexual intercourse wasn't meant to be" would be something similar
to

zo'e MEANT_TO_BE lenu loi nanmi cu gletu loi nanmu

But this means that there is something missing in x1 -- some intelligent and
self-concious being that meant for it to be. In essence, saying that
sentence would imply the existance of an intelligent self-concious creator,
commonly reffered to as 'God'.

My point: The notion of "meant to be" is meaningless if the expresser does
not believe in the existence of what is commonly reffered to as 'God'.

The fact that english allows this to be said without having to notice the
'missing' "x1" would cause, assuming Sapir-Whorf, for people to believe that
there are things that were "meant to be" even though they do not believe in
'God'.

In Lojban, this could not happen, as if somewas was to say
<pe'i MEANT_TO_BE lenu loi nanmu na gletu loi nanmu>,
one would immediately reply
<ma go'i>
and thus leave the homophobic without words.

-Avital.