Suppose a well-known and widely acknowledged likeable famous person made him-/herself known as being the Messiah..... [Details inside].
Asked by
rebbel (
35553
)
February 14th, 2012
Would/could he/she be believed by a vast majority of the world’s population?
Would/could social media be of influence?
Which celebrity/famous person doing so would be conceivable to you?
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24 Answers
Let’s keep this on the down-low, shall we? I’m not that famous yet.
… or likeable.
That is exactly what happened in the past. Joseph Smith, Jimmy Jones are the two that come to mind. Charismatic, the gift of gab, able to lie like a rug with a straight face. Of course, they didn’t claim to be “god” or the Messiah, but they did claim to be the chosen one that everyone should follow, because they were receiving their instructions directly from “Him.” And it worked. It is amazing to me that otherwise intelligent people are so easily led when it comes to affairs of divinity. I think it would be very much in the realm of possibility.
As far as who might be able to pull it off – not any actor or singer that I presently know. It works better with an unknown.
Meryl Streep
However, there are already arguments against this one
Can’t really think of anybody famous but as to be believed? The bar would be extremely high these days. We’re talking about parting the entire Pacific Ocean big and/or raising my beloved dead dog from the dead.
Stephen Colbert. You would never know if he was serious.
The “handicap” betting suggests Stephen Hawking as an overwhelming favourite.
I genuinely hope that Tom Cruise tries it some day…
No, I can’t imagine anyone would believe it. People who care will already feel like they know the celebrity, and they’ll wonder how this revelation could occur so suddenly.
Ahmenijad (or however you spell his name) is the messiah! I would know, I’ve followed a few!
I can’t imagine he/she would be widely believed or followed. Most would just think schizophrenia.
NO – Widespread acceptance and agreement is itself extremely rare on any issues.
No matter who it is and how likeable and popular they are, the moment they say they believe in somethng like this,, all credibility goes down the drain and everyone will hate them. cf Mel Gibson, David Icke.
Britney Spears? Why not? All the rest are just as unlikely.
Maybe it’ll be Whitney Houston after resurrection tomorrow.
What, too soon?
Out with the straightjacket!!!!!!!!!
One does not ‘proclaim’ himself as a messiah – the messiah has to be recognized by others as the messenger of god.
Therefore the premise of your question is suspect.
I disagree, @elbanditoroso . People “proclaim” themselves as prophets all the time. Some have proclaimed themselves the messiah as well. You just haven’t heard of them because not enough people believed them to make the news.
There was a famous one in the past, a self-proclaimed Messiah: Sabbatai Zevi
Read here
Looking at this question with a distance of 10 years (asked in 2012 and it is now 2022), I would throw out the name “Donald Trump”
^^Wow, what a Q. Thanks for waking it up.
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