Boy who inspired book says he lied

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,442
Reaction score
25,462
Location
Snow Cave
Fancy that. A child who lies! And when the lie meets with approval, embelishes the lie. Never heard of such a thing. How can this be?

Maryn, font of sarcasm
 

Dennis E. Taylor

Get it off! It burns!
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
2,602
Reaction score
365
Location
Beautiful downtown Mordor
Nearly five years later, a book that purported to be a 6-year-old boy's story of visiting angels and heaven after being injured in a bad car crash is being pulled from shelves by its publisher, Tyndale House. Alex Malarkey, the boy at the center of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, said this week that the story was all made up.

In case you don't want to click.

It brings up a valid question, though... should you accept prima facie any extraordinary claim that doesn't have evidentiary support?
(Note that this doesn't mean you should automatically reject it, either. There is a middle ground.)

Edit: Maryn, who scares the crap out of me with her latest avatar
 

khobar

Be constructive
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
291
Reaction score
22
Location
Mesa, AZ
Website
www.richardpnixon.com
The boy's last name is a bit ironic. Hmm... ;)

BTW, Angry Guy, thanks for posting what was at the link. I should have done so.

Something really strange with this whole story. He wrote an open letter and said:

"I did not die. I did not go to Heaven," Alex wrote. He continued, "I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible."

He concluded, "Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough."

And I think the answer lies (no pun intended) with his mother. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...go-to-heaven-publisher-says-it-will-pull-book
 
Last edited:

veinglory

volitare nequeo
Self-Ban
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
28,750
Reaction score
2,933
Location
right here
Website
www.veinglory.com
The plausibility of the story aside, the child now lives with his mother only, who claims the profits of the book co-written by the father are not being shared with the child. So there is more going on than a spontaneous confession. And statements in the admission like: only the Bible is infallible not any book written by people.... well.
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,442
Reaction score
25,462
Location
Snow Cave
I didn't see anything about the publisher wanting royalties returned. So lying pays, eh?

Maryn, so very jaded
 

Donald Schneider

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 21, 2009
Messages
177
Reaction score
10
Fancy that. A child who lies! And when the lie meets with approval, embelishes the lie. Never heard of such a thing. How can this be?

Maryn, font of sarcasm

LOL and most astute!

I shall say, however, that I give the young man credit for “fessing up” at this stage. I’m surprised he didn’t indoctrinate himself into at least semi-believing it. Don’t be too hard on him, I think. People believe what they want to believe, and that's no fault of his. Confirmation bias is a powerful self-intoxicant indeed. There will be many who will simply dismiss his recantation attributing such to pressure or, ironically, to his now wanting renewed attention.