site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3310 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 26, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Do you have a favorite Gospel of the New Testament? It has been suggested that the four Gospels correspond to the four Keirsey MBTI temperaments (SP artisans, SJ guardians, NT rationalists, NF idealists) and were written to be persuasive to different audiences:

"The reason there are four Gospels in the Bible has, since antiquity, been argued by Christians to be be because there are four different kinds of people. The Gospel of Mark portrays Jesus as an action-oriented doer, or as we would say, an SP type. The Gospel of Matthew recounts Jesus's heritage and lineage within the Jewish community and shows us why he is the rightful heir to the messianic throne, just as it focuses intensely on the proclamation of laws in the Sermon on the Mount; that's to say, the Gospel of Matthew shows Jesus as an SJ type. Then there is the Gospel of Luke, which recounts the story in a more critical and detached way, emphasizing abstraction and intellectualism, or as we would say, Jesus as an NT type. Finally there is the Gospel of John, which emphasizes the spiritual qualities of Jesus. It is much more ideal-oriented, concerned with identity, and contains more theological deliberations than the other three. This Gospel shows Jesus as an NF type."

Conveniently, you can also draw a parallel here with the four Hippocratic temperaments (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic).

four Gospels correspond to the four Keirsey MBTI temperaments (SP artisans, SJ guardians, NT rationalists, NF idealists).... Conveniently, you can also draw a parallel here with the four Hippocratic temperaments (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic)

I love this idea so much it's almost too good to check. That said, n=1: As INTJ and Melancholic, Matthew is my distant favorite, John second, and then a dropoff to Luke and Mark. If this model holds, it doesn't apply for me.

(The standard explanation for different-seeming Jesuses in the four gospels — besides "Christians are sanewashing irreconcilable conflicting evidence — is that Matthew emphasizes Jesus as King; Mark, Savior; Luke, Healer; John, God.)

BTW if anyone doesn't know about Hippocratic temperaments, check them out. Since learning about the model, I've found it cleaves very naturally to buckets of different people I know IRL and characters in fiction. Also, while it could be partially the Barnum Effect, I'm in this picture and I don't like it.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats