[mercer]

It's like the "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" argument used by the likes of C.S. Lewis to argue that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the son of God or otherwise just terrible all-around.

I remember growing up as an Evangelical Christian, I felt this argument was pretty decent. But eventually I came to realize that the argument hinges on the assumption that you can't be both a 'lunatic' in one part of your life, and functional or even an admirable person in other parts of your life.

Which of course is a silly assumption. The world is filled with genius crackpots, do-gooders who sucked in other parts of life, or people who are highly successful in one area and utter failures in other areas.

[joe_the_user]

Yes, that Lewis argument immediately came to mind.

It's notable also the way Lewis cites honest people attesting to miracles, with again the false dichotomy that either the miracles happened as they described or the people were liars, when we have already a multitude of examples of honest, intelligent people thinking they've seen something that they haven't.