Thudlow_Boink:
When faced with an account like this one, I consider that there are four possibilities:
It’s a fictitious account which the writer has made up. (This could be further divided into 1a: the writer expects or wants people to believe it really happened, and 1b: the writer expects or wants people to realize it’s fiction.)
It’s an account of something the writer believes actually happened, but all or part of it is actually a hallucination, dream, or false memory, possibly brought on by drugs or mental illness.
It’s an account of something that actually happened but which has a mundane explanation. For example, it might have been staged by someone as a stunt or prank.
It’s an account of a genuine supernatural or otherworldly occurrence.
I know that many of you rule out #4 a priori . I don’t rule it out, but it’s certainly not the first conclusion I leap to. In this case, my gut feeling is that it could be any of these but that the order of probability is the order I’ve listed them in. But since I have neither a way of knowing nor a need to know which it is, I’ll just shrug and reserve judgment.
I don’t know how you got as low as only 4 possibilities. It could have been an alien pretending to be Jesus, for example.
Well that would just be silly.
Originally Posted by Urbanredneck View Post
Now I’m also skeptical but at the same time I am open to any and all possibilities. Many people have reported visitations with supernatural beings. Are they all crackpots?
Thing is while you cannot prove this was real unless you find evidence of outright fraud you dont know it isnt either.
Sorry Urbanredneck but was I wooshed there?
Wouldn’t that fit under #4 ? An alien is otherworldly.
Logical fallacy; Argumentum ad populum.
And to answer your question, yes.
What’s more likely? That the guy writing this story:
[ol]
I’m taking option 2 there, Sparky
I guess option 3 could be that it actually was Matthew McConaughey, in which case I’ll say “Well, alright, alright, alright”.
I can’t tell: Does the story take place in Portland, OR? If so, then 100% real. You meet the nicest people in that city and I would guess jesus is one of the nicest. OP: Don’t you agree?
Gary_T
April 19, 2016, 3:18pm
50
That’s the mark of a good writer. Or a gullible reader.
Well, or ‘staged as a prank’, I guess.
ftg
April 19, 2016, 7:19pm
52
Mrs. FtG once saw a clown doing chin-ups in our bedroom doorway. She was also starting a new med at the time.
I’d believe her over the OP’s guy anytime.
Thudlow_Boink:
When faced with an account like this one, I consider that there are four possibilities:
It’s a fictitious account which the writer has made up. (This could be further divided into 1a: the writer expects or wants people to believe it really happened, and 1b: the writer expects or wants people to realize it’s fiction.)
It’s an account of something the writer believes actually happened, but all or part of it is actually a hallucination, dream, or false memory, possibly brought on by drugs or mental illness.
It’s an account of something that actually happened but which has a mundane explanation. For example, it might have been staged by someone as a stunt or prank.
It’s an account of a genuine supernatural or otherworldly occurrence.
I know that many of you rule out #4 a priori . I don’t rule it out, but it’s certainly not the first conclusion I leap to. In this case, my gut feeling is that it could be any of these but that the order of probability is the order I’ve listed them in. But since I have neither a way of knowing nor a need to know which it is, I’ll just shrug and reserve judgment.
Well, 2 doesn’t necessarily mean hallucination or major mental problem. Most likely something did actually happen, which has an easy mundane explanation, but was unusual enough to have the story told. As it was told and re-told the teller unconsciously changed/exaggerated it to be a better story and to be what he wanted to have happened. The teller now only remembers the improved story and believes that --now unexplainable – story is what actually happened.