Prophet's disappointment
Offline I have a friend who is a Professor of Theology at a catholic university. He is an agnostic and is openly so. He told me at dinner recently that he received a sad voicemail from a fellow explaining that he had contacted the professor twice by voicemail and once by e-mail and that he had intended to give the professor the text of revelation given directly to him by God.
Now, the professor had avoided all of these communiques because he smelled a psychotic. What I found interesting is that he receives offers from all sorts of "prophets" on a regular basis. He likened the situation to that of the Middle East 2000 years ago. As he pointed out, how the visions of a single man are seen as "true prophecy" rather than ravings is an interesting questions. Why do you suppose one set of irrationalities is grasped while many others are ignored?
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
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The same phycology as to why a person claims to talk to Allah or Jesus or Apollo directly is the same phycology that makes a fan of David Letterman think she really is his wife.
It just amounts to one club thinking that when they do absurd things it is different when the other clubs do the same thing.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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Right, I am pretty familiar how it works once a pack of them have elected to follow one particular "prophet." The question is one of "How do those first few decide that this particular person is a prophet?" There is a beginning, and that beginning is different that thousands of other beginnings. I am just musing over how it is different.
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
I'd suggest that it's simply confirmation bias. When a prophet tells you something that you already believe, you're likely to believe him to be truly prophetic. Prophecies that differ vastly from our own projections are usually discarded.
I suppose that for the sake of precision, I should say that when a prophet tells you something that you either already believe, or something that does not drastically alter what you believe, or something that enhances or otherwise improves (in your mind) upon what you believe, you're likely to think it prophetic.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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Well, the various major religions of the world have age on their side, I forget what the term in. SInce people have been told its true for a few thousand years they think it MUST be true. Then there is the little thing of if you didn`t think the ravings of the most popular local madman were true you would be killed also helps explain its longevity.
Morte alla tyrannus et dei
I've heard the phrase "cultural inertia" used to describe it. Usually in the context of people who have to explain why being a Scientologist is nuttier than being a Christian even though both religions have goofy beliefs.
Götter sind für Arten, die sich selbst verraten -- in den Glauben flüchten um sich hinzurichten. Menschen brauchen Götter um sich zu verletzen, um sich zu vernichten -- das sind wir.