Why "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" is a pretty silly argument

Why "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" is a pretty silly argument 12/19/2010

I love the Liar Lunatic or Lord argument, but it's pretty silly.

If you don't know this famous argument (first made by CS Lewis, I believe), here's a short summary: You say Jesus was a good man, but you don't believe he was God. Fine. You're either calling him a LIAR (He was dishonest about who he said he was) or a LUNATIC (He falsely believed that he was God). Either way, you're stuck with the problem of explaining how a Good Teacher whose ideals we should follow could be compatible with a person who wasn't honest with us about his person-hood or was mentally unstable.

This is a pretty good argument at first glance. I'll admit that I was smitten with it for quite a while.

But the problem is that the Liar, Lunatic, or Lord Argument is that in essence it's claiming that a Liar can NEVER tell the truth and that a Lunatic can NEVER say something sane or worth repeating. I think you'd find us hard pressed to make that sort of leap. Liars are usually proficient at telling truth-telling; just think of all the politicians who lie through their teeth to get elected and sometimes end up passing legislation that's worthwhile. And Lunatics are sometimes better at seeing reality than the rest of us- they are often simply missing the filter that allows them to interact with the rest of us in a reasonable, rational manner.

Now, this isn't to say that Jesus wasn't Lord. I believe He is. I just don't like this particular argument because it oversimplifies matters where there isn't a simple answer.

Comments

Neil Byce

12/27/2010 08:39

hey Nathan,

I like your rationale for your argument but I would say that the argument of liar or lunatic is a generalization. If someone is a liar or lunatic, you pretty much can't trust them. That is the heart of the matter. Can we trust Jesus enough to believe he is the messiah or not. Love your thoughts by the way.

anonymous

07/24/2011 18:15

You should read Mere Christianity or even Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Mere Christianity is a fantastic book and really explains the Lord, liar, lunatic philosophy clearly. It isn't that a liar can never tell the truth, it is that a Jesus based his entire ministry, his entire life on the fact that he was God. If this is not true, then he deceived millions of people over the course of thousands of years. Everything we belive and experience as Christians would be based on falsehood.

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