Lunatic, Liar, or Lord Argument
(C. S. Lewis)
The Lunatic, Liar, or Lord Argument is a specific argument for the divinity of Jesus. It was put forth by author, historian, and christian apologist Clive Staples Lewis in his book "Mere Christianity". Lewis is trying to prevent people from claiming Jesus was a good moral teacher but not a god. The argument aims to prove that Jesus must have been God.
Here is the quote
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." - C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
Here it is a little cleaned up
1: Jesus claimed he was god.
2: Therefore, Jesus was either a
A: Lunatic: He was crazy, not god.
B: Liar: He lied about being god.
C: Lord: He actually was god.
3: Jesus obviously wasn't a lunatic or a liar
4: Jesus was and is god
This is an argument used in conjunction with other arguments to prove the christian deity instead of just the nebulous deistic god. There are quite a few problems with this argument.
Problem 1: Did Jesus actually claim to be god?
This is a problem with premise 1. "Jesus claimed he was god". In the bible this is not stated directly but the inference is drawn from several vague and euphemistic verses in the gospel of John.
"...he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" - John 14:9
"...Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." - John 8:58
"...My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working." - John 5:17
Given the acrobatic lengths some christians go to in order to interpret other verses so that they seem to make sense, it is difficult to say with any confidence that we should interpret these verses as Jesus claiming to be god.
However, if we do accept this interpretation does that prove he actually said what he is quoted as saying? Not rly, it is possible that he was misquoted. Seeing as john is the latest gospel, it was not written until well after the synoptic gospels, and all the gospels were written decades after any depicted events there is plenty of room for a legend to develop. What if the whole story is made up fiction?
Problem 2: False trilemma
The only 3 options given in premise 2 were Lunatic, Liar, and Lord. Lewis discounts lunatic and liar so that he is left with lord. But process of elimination only works when you know those are the only options. There is at least 1 more option Legend, the story of Jesus claiming to be god was fabricated or embellished. That makes this a false dilemma ... er trilemma.
Problem 3: How do you know Jesus wasn't a lunatic?
Maybe the word lunatic is a bit hyperbolic but what if Jesus was honestly mistaken? Lewis makes the assumption that if Jesus believed he was god, but wasn't really god then he was a lunatic "on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg". But that isn't necessary, Jesus could have been perfectly sane and just been wrong.
If Christianity is false, that doesn't make all christians lunatics and If Hinduism is false, that doesn't make all hindus lunatics. One of these is necessarily false as they are contradictory. Many perfectly sane people are on both sides. One or both sides are defiantly wrong but I wouldn't call them crazy.
What if, however, he was clinically insane? Does that mean he couldn't comport himself as a functional member of ancient society? There are plenty of nut jobs running around in this day and age that escape the luny bin long enough to gain followers (David Koresh, Jim Jones, Charles Manson), why would an ancient culture fair any better?
Problem 4: Was Jesus a great moral teacher?
This argument started out by trying to prevent people from saying "Jesus was a great moral teacher, but he wasn't god". Was Jesus a great moral teacher? I have my doubts. Here I outline my opinions on Jesus.
First off, there is no historical evidence Jesus even existed in the first place. No eyewitness testimony outside of the gospels (Which are unreliable to say the least. Pseudepigraphal, clearly biased, and unverifiable), no physical evidence is on hand, and no other records are available. Still, I am not opposed to the idea that a man walked the earth at that time with that name. There is nothing extraordinary about that claim and I am willing to grant it for sake of argument. I plan on doing a historicity of Jesus post in the future, so check back soon.
As for the teaching in the gospels that are attributed to Jesus there are several gems and several blemishes. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is truly good but "Take no thought for the morrow" is irresponsible and foolish.
The overall story of someone standing up to corruption and sacrificing themselves for the good of others tugs at all our hearts. This theme is plastered throughout history and mythology. When on trial in Athens, the philosopher Socrates resolved to drink hemlock poison, accepting a death sentence instead of backing down from teaching the pursuit of virtue. So far as Jesus was standing up to corruption and teaching peace and love I admire him as a hero, but so far as he threatened eternal torment and hell fire for honest doubt I despise him as a villain.
As always, thanks for reading and any comment or corrections are greatly appreciated
-Adam
