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sixes_and_sevens comments on Open Thread March 31 - April 7 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: beoShaffer 01 April 2014 01:41AM

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Comment author: brazil84 01 April 2014 08:00:50AM 6 points [-]

I enjoyed reading the Temptation of Christ article. One thing that struck me is that the Jesus character responded far more reasonably than your typical deluded person does when asked questions which challenge their beliefs, at least in my experience.

In my experience, when a person's beliefs are driven by emotion, he tends to have much more of a "concede nothing" mentality -- even if he is sane. Can Jesus in the story use this as evidence that he really is Jesus? Again we run into the problem that irrationality blinds the irrational to their own irrationality. But it's still worth considering I think.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 03 April 2014 11:27:53AM 3 points [-]

I've spent a cursory couple of minutes hunting for the original, but I can't find it.

Belief one is the President of the United States is a common delusion of grandeur. Anyone waking up in the morning believing they're the President of the United States is probably wrong about this fact, but I still want the President of the United States to do his job.

Comment author: brazil84 03 April 2014 01:19:06PM 5 points [-]

I like that quote, but it occurs to me that you can subdivide this belief into two categories:

  1. Believing that you are the U.S. President AND believing the people you meet generally recognize this fact about you.

  2. Believing that you are the U.S. President AND believing the people you meet won't accept that you are president.

I'm not an expert on delusions, but I would think that of insane people who are deluded about being President, pretty much all of them fall into the latter category. e.g. if you asked one of them, he would tell you there is an imposter in the White House who has deceived everyone into thinking he (the imposter) is President. Or something along those lines. And he would honestly believe it.

So if you wake up believing you are the President, and the people around you seem to be calling you "Mr. President" and following your orders, and you seem to be living in the White House, then probably you should get out of bed, get dressed, and do your job (as President). On the other hand, if nobody will accept that you are President, and there are no pretty interns trying to flirt with you, then my advice is not to worry about doing your job as President.

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