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I liked Mere Christianity and I like C.S. Lewis's writing in general, but certain parts of Mere Christianity annoyed me because it felt manipulative. The most
by EthanHeilman 6y ago
I liked Mere Christianity and I like C.S. Lewis's writing in general, but certain parts of Mere Christianity annoyed me because it felt manipulative. The most egregious example is Lewis's trilemma which seems constructed to win arguments, although I've never seen it win a single argument, not by a good faith argument but by putting someone on the spot and demanding that they to choose between three answers; Two of which will make them sound exceedingly rude and harm their standing in society.
- alan-crowe 6y agoThe most interesting response that I've seen to Lewis's trilemma came from a psychiatric nurse. His experience of working in an psychiatric hospital was that people with delusions, such as thinking they are Napoleon, didn't seem particularly off. They were pleasant, and easy to care for. Over the course of weeks, one would get to know them. It would gradually become apparent that the delusional thinking went very deep. They really did need residential care. So Lewis's rhetoric depends on "lunatic" connoting "raving lunatic" and there are actually four branches to his tri-lemma: liar, God, raving lunatic, some-one with serious psychiatric issues who generally holds it together and seems normal much of the time.
- goto11 6y agoMy take on the trilemma is that Jesus never actually claimed to be God in the first place.
- guide42 6y agoIt didn't because declaring it was inconceivable in the Judeo view. But he might well understood he was God.
- senderista 6y agoClaiming to be the Messiah is a long way from claiming to be God. There is good evidence Jesus claimed the former and not the latter (which wouldn’t even make sense to a first-century Jew).