Delusional on a Grand Scale: Assessing The Inner Witness of the Spirit

William Lane Craig claims the inner witness of the Spirit "trumps all other evidence." It is "an intrinsic defeater-defeater" for anyone who experiences to it. So even if I don't have that witness, and even if I don't like the idea of such a witness, I'm in no position to judge that he does not possess it. Craig claims this inner witness provides all the evidence he needs to know Jesus personally and that Jesus is his savior. This witness is sufficient for him. It defeats any evidence to the contrary as utterly irrelevant. But this is delusional on a grand scale. How do you convince a delusional person like this? I probably can't. That's the power of a delusion like this. So for people not impervious to reason let me speak to them. What Craig is doing is sophistry plain and simple. He's describing a subjective experience and claiming it's an objective veridical experience that defeats all other objective evidence. Now it's one thing to say a subjective experience is to be considered objective evidence, as delusional as that is. It's another thing entirely to say a subjective experience carries more weight than all objective evidence. People wonder why I call Christians delusional. You need not wonder any more.

To see that it as a mere non-veridical subjective experience all we need to do is consider the wide number of people around the world who claim to have it. Just consider people who say they are Jesus. Will the real Jesus please stand up? Watch these two videos:

Alan Miller claims to be Jesus:



Jose de Miranda claims to be Jesus:

Watch Jose de Miranda on Youtube.

Both Miller and de Miranda would claim to personally know that they are Jesus, as do their followers. This knowing of theirs would trump all other evidence. It also would be an intrinsic defeater-defeater for anyone who experiences it. They think that even if I don't have that experience and even if I don't like the idea of such an experience, I'm in no position to judge that they don't possess it. They would say this personal experience of theirs provides all the evidence they need. It too is sufficient for them. It defeats any evidence to the contrary as utterly irrelevant.

Now really? How many of these claims do we need to put side-by-side to see them as delusional? There are many people who have claimed to be Jesus.

articulett chimes in on this:

Yeah, and you are in no position to know if the 9-11 hijackers are in paradise. Nor if missing children are being eaten by aliens. Nor if a real Santa exists. You are in no position to know if Bigfoot is real or if we are in a matrix or if any schizophrenic delusions are based on real invisible beings. However, intelligent people are intelligent about the assessing the probable truth value of such claims. We can also understand that lots of people imagine they know things when they are, in fact, wrong.

That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Alan Miller believes he IS Jesus... why should Craig's "witness" be more compelling to anyone interested in the truth than this guy?

No really, why?

If you are a Christian and you really think this inner witness is an objective veridical experience then you need to watch the worship services of believers around the world seen right here. If the people in those videos are delusional then why aren't you?

No really. Why aren't you?