thesgman wrote:
I'm interested to hear your take on what would happen in one of the following situations -
All right, I'll give my take
thesgman wrote:
1) Someone among us claims to be a prophet, seriously and genuinely claims to be one and has a "message" for all of us or claims they speak to God.
2) Someone claims they have spoken to God, and here's what he said for all of us to do, yada yada yada . . .
Who would believe such a person and not pass them off as mentally unstable or mentally ill? Isn't that what we (well, educated doctors at least) do with people like this nowadays, pass them off as a fraud or mentally ill, give `em some medicine and pay for their rehabilitation?
We probably would declair them mentally ill. Though I don't think that would try to rehabilitate every single person that makes these claims. After all, several homeless people make these claims, and we don't rehabilitate them.
thesgman wrote:
Wouldn't it take a genuine miracle for either of the aforementioned situations to be taken seriously? I guess it's a good thing all of the Prophets and Saints came before modern psychology . . . . Your take?
that's where I disagree. Modern psychology has helped people understand the minds of others a little better. Before modern psycology, we would have
killed those who made these claims. Humans have even killed the son of God because we didn't believe him. Even if they did some miracles, we would try to find a scientific reason why they happen. I doubt we would believe anyone who makes these claims, miracle or not.