Group hallucinations
April 9, 2019 at 5:26 am
(This post was last modified: April 9, 2019 at 5:27 am by Fake Messiah.)
While looking trough that book "Cold Case Christianity" few days ago I also came upon a part where Jim is trying to disparage claims of some scholars that when people saw resurrected Jesus they were in fact hallucinating. And this is what he says
There are some scholars that claim that disciples were hallucinating, although not the claims in the Gospels, but rather Paul's claims like And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;. But also when scholars say "hallucinating" they also mean people convincing themselves to see something they haven't and/ or just simply lying to be part of the group.
Nevertheless, Jim's apologetic claims are wrong, like there are no examples of large groups of people having the exact same hallucination
One of best examples are UFO sightings that started when Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen something that "flew like they take a saucer and throw it across the water". But newspapers misquoted him and just said flying saucer and after that "everybody" saw flying saucers.
Even closer examination of mass UFO hallucination was done by James Randi decades ago on a radio show
But even before that there was the Airship flap that lasted during five months between 1896-1897 where thousands of people claimed they have seen the strange airship flying across the US. There was even a photograph of it. But of course it was just a hoax.
Or even before that people claimed to see women flying on brooms.
Or before that, apparitions of Mary where some people claimed to see her while others not. Like from Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World"
So, again, Jim is lying or simply doesn't know what he's talking about and Christians don't care: "as long as he's talking positively about Jesus it must be right".
Cold Case Christianity Wrote:Based on these experiences as a detective, there are other reasonable concerns when considering the explanation that the disciples hallucinated or imagined the resurrection:
1. While individuals have hallucinations, there are no examples of large groups of people having the exact same hallucination.
2. While a short, momentary group hallucination may seem reasonable, long, sustained, and detailed hallucinations are unsupported historically and intuitively unreasonable.
3. The risen Christ was reportedly seen on more than one occasion and by a number of different groups (and subsets of groups). All of these diverse sightings would have to be additional group hallucinations of one nature or another.
There are some scholars that claim that disciples were hallucinating, although not the claims in the Gospels, but rather Paul's claims like And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;. But also when scholars say "hallucinating" they also mean people convincing themselves to see something they haven't and/ or just simply lying to be part of the group.
Nevertheless, Jim's apologetic claims are wrong, like there are no examples of large groups of people having the exact same hallucination
One of best examples are UFO sightings that started when Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen something that "flew like they take a saucer and throw it across the water". But newspapers misquoted him and just said flying saucer and after that "everybody" saw flying saucers.
Even closer examination of mass UFO hallucination was done by James Randi decades ago on a radio show
James Randi Wrote:many years ago, of proving to myself and to the listeners of "The Long John Nebel Show," a radio program in New York. Nebel and I planned in advance to perform a minor experiment, and as we settled in for a long evening of talk about the wonders of a subject very much in demand on that show—flying saucers.
I breathlessly described how, earlier that evening, I had been driving through the Perth Amboy area of New Jersey and had seen a V-shaped formation of triangular orange objects going overhead in a northerly direction. I said I wasn't sure whether there had been any noise, because of the traffic sounds around me. Immediately the station switchboard lit up like an electronic Christmas tree, and John's secretary began taking down reports from callers who had also been witnesses to this remarkable sighting. Some were even switched through to the studio and told their stories on the air. Within half an hour we had established the exact number of triangles and the speed, altitude, and precise direction of the formation, and had discovered that I had seen only one pass of the "saucers" when there had been several!
As I look back on it now, I think it was unfortunate that we "blew the gaff" right there on the show about an hour after going on the air. Otherwise the reported sighting would undoubtedly have gone into the vast literature about "unidentified flying objects" and would have been by now one of the unassailable cases quoted by believers. As it was, we mercifully terminated the hoax
But even before that there was the Airship flap that lasted during five months between 1896-1897 where thousands of people claimed they have seen the strange airship flying across the US. There was even a photograph of it. But of course it was just a hoax.
Or even before that people claimed to see women flying on brooms.
Or before that, apparitions of Mary where some people claimed to see her while others not. Like from Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World"
Demon Haunted World Wrote:For example, multiple witnesses in a small town might tell of a tall, glowing woman dressed all in white carrying an infant son and surrounded by a radiance that lit up the street the previous night. But in other cases, people standing directly beside the witness could see nothing, as in this report of a 1617 apparition from Castile: ‘Aye, Bartolome, the lady who came to me these past days is coming through the meadow, and she is kneeling and embracing the cross there - look at her, look at her!’ The youth though he looked as hard as he could saw nothing except some small birds flying around above the cross.
So, again, Jim is lying or simply doesn't know what he's talking about and Christians don't care: "as long as he's talking positively about Jesus it must be right".
