cbostrum (05/04/83)
Ralph's last submission is a sad example of how an intelligent and clever person can decieve himself into believing things primarily because he wishes they are true. I won't comment at all on what I believe to be so far the total incoherence of his (and others') notion of "deity"; I have temporarily given up on that for now. I won't even point out that *given* such notions to be coherent, and even *given* the truth of the notion that God can "give meaning to our lives" (how could this be?)), Ralph's argument in the middle of his message is merely a version of "wishing makes it so" and not any sensible reason for believing in God's existence. No, the saddest is the latter part of the message, where Ralph argues (apparently) that the most credible interpretation of the gospel story of Jesus is that he really did "rise from the dead" (whatever that means). As Anthony Flew on his visit to our campus said last week: "See Hume". (Referring to his monumental "On Miracles" for you non-philosophers out there). Ralph seems to think not worthy of consideration the possibility that in some way, the crucifixtion was a hoax, or planned to enable Jesus to escape. If he didnt *want* to believe the far less plausible idea that he "rose from the dead to return to his father above", I claim there is *no way* he would accept such shoddy arguing. If you don't believe in miracles like that occuring already, clearly the notion of some possible fakery is much more plausible. There are any number of ways this could have been done, and plenty of motive. It is futile to argue that a deception could not have worked when similar deceptions have worked today with more sophisticated audiences, and probably more sceptical ones. (In particular, do you expect the authors of the gospels to possess a healthy degree of skepticism on this matter?) In my opinion, the far more plausible explanation of the gospel story is that it is just that, a story: a *fairy tale*. Why should be believe anything else, especially given its similarity to so many other ancient myths, legends, and folk tale? (see Jung, Campell, Raglan, Fraser, etc). Sad, very sad.