C.S. Lewis and his "trilemma".

by gaiagirl 27 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  IP_SEC

  Ok XJW,

  If it doesnt make sense I'd be happy to break it down for you.

  Are all dogs mammals?
  YES
  
  No cats are dogs?
  Correct
  
  Then no cats are mammals right?
  Correct? No there are other possibilties not discussed here. Lewis only presented 3 possibilties. There are other possibilties. Therefore his argument is logically flawed. This doesnt mean his premise is wrong. Jesus could very well have been the son of god inspite of his flawed logic.

  So when yes you are correct. Early followers Mighthave corrected errors. They might not have. Since they might not have Lewis didnt present enough possibilties for a logical argument.
• 

  Hortensia

  well, there's no evidence there actually was a real Jesus, so the whole argument is moot. The trilemma depends on believing in Jesus, whether or not he was the son of god.
• 

  veradico

  If there were a diversity of Christian groups (as we in fact know there were), would the folks who actually knew Jesus bother to try to correct every erroneous offshoot? Even if such were their desire, would these (mostly Jewish) followers be able to influence the numerous pagan churches? Even if Jesus called himself "Son of God" and did magic in his name, we can't simply impose a contemporary interpretation on his words and deeds. The question of what he meant remains. And the notion that Jesus' followers would "correct" a narrative about his life if it were not a sufficiently accurate representation of the "historical" reality does not take into account the ancient notion of modifying the material to fit the genre and the "ideal", the possibility of Jesus' followers reinterpreting their experiences with him, and all sorts of other possibilities. The situation is far more complex than Lewis' trilemma suggests.
• 

  BizzyBee

  Make of it what you will, but as a fan of C. S. Lewis, I say simply, Beware of taking him out of context. He is such a master of running around to the other side of the table to argue the opposing position, that I would not take up a discussion based on 3 - 4 sentences of his. Added to which, he was not above changing his POV when his curious intellect led him to a deeper understanding of the issue. Which is why I am a fan.
• 

  hmike

  Lewis proceeds from the assumption that the Gospels are an accurate record of what Jesus said—it's just a question of whether what he said was true or not. That is no longer a "given."

  The Gospels are accurate in the essentials.

  What I mean is that in discussing the accuracy of the Gospels, there may be no concession by others that there is any real history here at all. It's like someone in an ancient culture discussing the nature of God. Virtually all cultures had some kind of god, gods, or religion, so you could start with the idea of a creator god and work from there because they would concede the existence of a creator god as a "given." Without a concept of a god or creation, you have to pick some other common ground as a starting point.

  Just the responses to this thread should illustrate that.
• 

  inrainbows

  Of course there are other possibilities. C. S. Lewis is vastly over-rated and trite. He should have stuck to children's stories, and even then made them less allegorical.

  One other possibility is JC nailed to the tree screaming "Let me down you idiots, 'Son of God' is a METAPHOR".
• 

  R.Crusoe

  The supposition that the Jewish god is the only god!

  The claim by some that Jesus simultaneously is god, is his son etc

  The fact that all reality is current human interpretation i.e. none of the three can be proven/disproven conclusively so it is hypothetically possible that Jesus was god and claimed he wasnt but everyone, seeing what he did claimed he was!

  Mathematically it is hypothetically possible he was god and was insane because who is to say that insanity is not the ultimate reality!

  And it could be said he was god and lied because the supposition by humans is that god cannot lie!

  Obviously mathematical possibility is separate from religious ideology which frequently rules out events which contradict their preffered reality and so questions of contradiction tend to be only ones which allude to such!
• 

  MissingLink

  Much oversimplifying and assumption. What if Jesus is a totally fictional character?
• 

  gaiagirl

  So, if C.S. Lewis premise is not supported by his own arguments, by what arguments, if any, ARE they supported?
• 

  nicolaou

  We had a real blast with this one about two and a half years ago; http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/102123/1.ashx