maniakes ([info]maniakes) wrote,
@ 2008-04-22 10:49:00
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Prophet Motive
I would think that any Prophet or Messiah would fall into one of the following four categories:
  1. He's talking to God -- he is a genuine Prophet

  2. He's talking to himself -- he is a madman

  3. He's making it up -- he is the perpetrator of a hoax

  4. He's talking to someone he incorrectly believes to be God -- he is the victim of a hoax or of a misunderstanding
Am I missing any possibilities?

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[info]makellan
2008-04-22 06:21 pm UTC (link)
That looks complete to me other than possibly a mix of the above:
Madman easily victimized by a hoax.
Victim talking to a madman.

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[info]daedalus4096
2008-04-22 06:27 pm UTC (link)
Other than combinations of the above, I don't see anything missing.

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[info]flawlessnight
2008-04-22 07:09 pm UTC (link)
The world is an illusion, and there's no such thing as speech.

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[info]rustycoon
2008-04-22 08:14 pm UTC (link)
DAMNIT!

You beat me to it.

I was going to phrase it: There is no prophet, and we are the madmen for envisioning him.

Also #3 would also be known as "Marketing consultant"

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[info]maniakes
2008-04-22 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Are you positing a shared delusion that the prophet exists, or are you talking about solipsism?

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oooh good point.
[info]rustycoon
2008-04-22 08:43 pm UTC (link)
ummm, both!

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Re: oooh good point.
[info]maniakes
2008-04-22 08:46 pm UTC (link)
So I'm imagining a prophet, and I'm also imagining that you also imagine him? Cool!

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[info]flawlessnight
2008-04-22 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Ooh, that's a better way to phrase it. :)

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[info]parzanese
2008-04-22 10:49 pm UTC (link)
What about:

5. He is God.

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[info]herufeanor
2008-04-22 10:56 pm UTC (link)
I think that would be a mix of 2 and 3.

He's claiming to be talking to God, but he IS God, so he's both talking to himself and perpetuating a hoax.

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[info]parzanese
2008-04-22 11:35 pm UTC (link)
Or he's Jesus and the end of the world is coming :)

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[info]maniakes
2008-04-22 11:51 pm UTC (link)
It's a mix of 1, 2, and 3, since in talking to himself he's also talking to God.

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[info]herufeanor
2008-04-23 12:14 am UTC (link)
So the insane God who constantly talks to himself comes down to Earth to convince mortals that the world is the back of a turtle shell.

Fully hits 1, 2 and 3 all at once.

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[info]maniakes
2008-04-23 12:18 am UTC (link)
In a polytheistic world, you could even have a God who thinks he's a different God than he actually is, thus hitting 4 as well.

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[info]daedalus4096
2008-04-23 05:20 pm UTC (link)
And since we're all discussing him hypothetically, we get to include the fifth option proposed by [info]flawlessnight and [info]rustycoon.

Yahtzee!

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