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TWHF and the trilemma

Comprising most of Lewis' writings.
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TWHF and the trilemma

Postby Steve » September 19th, 2006, 6:42 am

Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
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re: TWHF and the trilemma

Postby mgton » September 19th, 2006, 7:42 pm

If I remember correctly, Orual considered all three options. She thought "could it really be true", and then " cruel psyche, stop playing this game", and finally "she's completely lost it"... so that's lord (or truth in this case), liar, and lunatic.
You said, "both liar and lunatic options are explicitly denied because Orual sees the god of the mountain." Well, after Psyche snuck a peak at the god of the mountain (causing him to erupt in anger), Orual saw him; but she didn't deny that she saw him did she? Or are you talking about before Psyche snuck in and tried to see the god, when Orual was getting a drink by the river and she thought she saw him?

By the way, I think that Orual really saw the god (while she was getting a drink), and she knows that she really saw him. But she does't want to see the god of the mountain, so she writes things like "tell me, did I really see the god or did I imagine that I did" (that was a rough paraphrase). Remember that Orual is writing the book that we are reading.

I think the whole thing between Psyche, Orual, and the god of the mountain is similar to the situation in real life where one person becomes a believer in God and the other person doesn't. I think this was the point Lewis was trying to make. (That's if you believe he was trying to make a "point" at all; I sometimes wonder if readers [myself included] try to pull too many "points" out of fictional books.) The speech that Orual makes to the gods at the end, when she is finally saying (or the gods are finally making her say) what she "really means", seems to go along with this.
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Re: TWHF and the trilemma

Postby rusmeister » September 19th, 2006, 11:00 pm

"Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
Bill "The Blizzard" Hingest - That Hideous Strength
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re: TWHF and the trilemma

Postby Steve » September 21st, 2006, 6:18 am

Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
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re: TWHF and the trilemma

Postby Robert » September 21st, 2006, 8:53 am

Not really. THere are many (g)ods, but just one (G)od. Since Psyche was supposedly a (g)od she could have been any one of them. But, if one claims to be (G)od, and since there can be only one of this sort, then the trilemma is still in tact and we can find Lewis, although not always, consistent.
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Postby gameld » November 2nd, 2006, 3:27 am

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Re: TWHF and the trilemma

Postby archenland_knight » August 26th, 2010, 5:23 pm

It is important to remember that Lewis' Trillema argument was NOT meant to prove that Jesus or God existed. It was meant to counter one very specific philosophy, namely that Jesus was a "good moral teacher" or "great man", but not The Son of The Living God. Many an atheist has claimed that there is a "fourth option; that he did not exist at all". But this option is unavailable to those who claim Jesus was a great moral teacher, as He must have existed to be a teacher of any sort.

Also, comparing the Trillema to Psyche fails in another way. Psyche is making her claims about another being. Thus the possibility that she is simply misinformed as to the nature of that being is a very real possibility.

Jesus, however, made His claims about Himself. If He claims to be God, but is not, then He is clearly a devil's own liar or a complete madman. For if you truly believe you are God, and if you are not, then you're clearly in need of psychiatric care.

So, in these ways the "Trillema" is inapplicable to the situation in TWHF.

The TWHF situation is somewhat similar to Lucy Pevensie's situation in LWW. The siblings of both Lucy and Orual must consider three possibilities: 1. She is lying, which they know she does not do. 2. She is crazy, which they know she is not. 3. She is telling the truth.

Of course, that still leaves Orual with an option the Pevensies did not have, which is that Psyche was misled. Still, I don't think the Trillema option directly applies.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
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