(April 7, 2021 at 6:47 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: So this topic is about the claim in "Case For Crist" movie in which a psychologist claims that mass hallucinations are impossible, or more precisely that it is impossible for 500 people to have the same hallucination (of seeing resurrected Jesus). The 500 people come from supposedly Paul's claim.Leaving aside the fact that this is Strobel's crapfest, I know for a fact that such mass hallucinations happen because I lived through it.
I refer to the "moving statues of Ireland" back in 1985. 100's of thousands faithfully claimed that those statues really moved. It was fascinating. My parents were devout RCC, and even they considered it to be a pile of bollocks. I always wondered how it was that a pair of devout catholics raised 4 godless heathens, but that is a different story.
In any event, the whole thing started at a shrine to holy blessed virgin mary just outside an obscure village named Ballinspittle (pop:who cares). Back then, we were a country saddled with RCC hegemony. Anyway, some twonk reported this roadside statue came to life. The credulous thronged to it in a fit of marian idolatry. Promptly, 30+ other statues around the country also started moving. It became a circus. Nevertheless, there were thousands of "eye-witnesses". Some of it was really bizarre. TV crews would interview convinced faithful folks who would claim that the statue moved so the camera must be wrong or some such. Funny enough, my parents spotted it as a total load despite their faith. Fair play to them.
Still, that illustrates just how easily mass delusions can and do happen all the time.
Interestingly, the whole bucket of nonsense simply fizzled out spontaneously and got tucked away in the "embarrassing history" drawer.
Suffice it to say that the animated statues are still in the same place and pose they always were, with the exception of the first one which was vandalised by a bunch of fundie christians, amusingly.
