Logic Matters 2008-03-30

Philosophy of Religion 4: Lord, Liar, Lunatic

Pp. 75--80 of the Murray/Rea Introduction contain a rather extraordinary episode which I can't forbear from commenting on.They consider the following argument -- they call it the "Lord-Liar-Lunatic" argument -- for believing the Jesus of Nazereth was divine. Jesus claimed to be divine. The claim is either true or false. If the latter, either Jesus knew it was false, and was a liar. "On the other hand, if he unwittingly falsely claimed to be divine, then he was crazy." But the influence of Jesus's teaching ... has been enormous. Literally millions of people have found peace, sanity and virtue in orienting their lives round his teachings. ... All of these facts together make it seem very likely that Jesus was neither so wicked and egomaniacal as to try deliberately to deceive others into thinking that he was divine, nor so ...

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