this isnt really a rhetoric thing. he knows its bad to not believe in stuff like magic and God, but he doesnt, so he has to square the circle. its that simple
i like the guy, but hes literally spent his entire career realizing and explaining that crazy stuff like magic and angels and people rising from the dead and heaven is essential - but he doesnt actually believe in those things. u kind of have to feel bad for him. we can only pray
this is the answer you always get in some form from people who are caught in this gap. “well i wish it was real so it kind of is real, i mean, what is real anyway? isnt santa ‘real’ because he represents…” etc
i am confidently assuming (could be wrong obviously) because of the stance he takes in debates and the answers he gives to questions like this
interesting
yeah see just to clarify its not like i think this is bad or that i would tell someone not to do this, its that its perpendicular to “is this real”. in this sense great novels “actually happened”. you can say star wars really happened if “happened” means “it speaks to XYZ”.
i think another tell, i often ask people this IRL when we enter this domain, is people only do this with ideas or concepts they like. most of us would not accept “scientology is true” on this kind of basis - or that its as true as another religion that we are sympathetic to.
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