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RobbBB comments on Book trades with open-minded theists - recommendations? - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Morendil 29 August 2011 05:23AM

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Comment author: RobbBB 19 November 2012 04:45:30PM *  2 points [-]

A fifth alternative: Lord, Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Just Plain Wrong. It's amazing that the simplest explanations -- that someone might simply be mistaken, that they might have sanely and honestly misinterpreted the data -- gets so completely ignored and erased.

Comment author: r_claypool 20 November 2012 07:42:04AM 0 points [-]

Yeah, but 'Just Plain Wrong' is how I would describe thinking Hawaii is in the Caribbean; It's not how I would describe having followers that think you are God in flesh.

Comment author: RobbBB 20 November 2012 02:14:26PM *  1 point [-]

The question is whether it's possible to simply be mistaken about having divine powers, without having an underlying mental disorder. And clearly the answer is 'yes;' and clearly this possibility has a higher prior probability than 'Jesus is Lord.' So neglecting the option is unconscionable, and is where the trilemma gets nearly all of its plausibility as an argument for Christianity.

Suppose a few really unlikely events happened, and caused everyone around you to think you were the messiah and/or divine. Would it be inconceivable, barring true insanity or deliberate deception, to come to think oneself the messiah and/or divine? Do you think that every psychic, every cult leader, is either (independently) insane or deliberately lying? It just ain't so; self-deception is stronger than that.

Comment author: r_claypool 21 November 2012 06:41:10PM 0 points [-]

That reminds me of Yvain's 'The Last Temptation of Christ'