Lunatic, Liar, or Lord?
Occasionally updated and edited. Copyright © 2009

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"Helicopter."

Daniel offered a moment of silence as he pondered my answer. It seemed absurd.

"What?" he finally asked.

"Helicopter," I answered. "We're in a helicopter."

There was another moment of silence. Daniel looked confused. Actually, we were in Poncho's restaurant and my answer was unrelated to his question, "Was Jesus a lunatic, a liar or was he Lord?"

"Are we in a tugboat, an airplane or a helicopter?" I asked. "We're not in a tugboat and we're not in an airplane. So we must be in a helicopter."

Daniel sat back in chair. I repeated. "The options are tugboat, airplane and helicopter. If we're not in a tugboat and if we're not in an airplane, then we must be in a helicopter."

My logic, of course, was nonsense. And that was point. Evangelicals conclude that if Jesus was neither a lunatic or a liar, he must have been Lord. The inherent flaw to the 'lunatic, liar or Lord' question should be obvious: It doesn't include the correct answer. Like Pascal?s wager, the question is designed to default to an inaccurate conclusion. To make that point I was framing the same nonsensical logic in a parallel question, "Are we in a tugboat, airplane, or helicopter?"

The correct answer to both questions is: "None of the above." We are not in a tugboat, airplane, or helicopter. And Jesus was neither a lunatic, a liar, or Lord."

Honestly framed, the question could ask, "Was Jesus Christ, Lord, lunatic, liar, legend, or none of the above?"