Lying
Humans lie. Humans use lies to their benefit. Even those that subscribe to honesty, lie on occasions. Some lies are small: “That dress looks fine.” Small lies may be used to avoid uncomfortable situations or to avoid upsetting somebody. I often say: “Never lie.” or “Always tell the truth.” I even state that: “I don’t tell lies”, but it is not quite true. I often avoid telling an unnecessary truth. The first lie today occurred when somebody asked me: “How you going?”. I said: “Good.”
We might like to assume that the people around us are generally honest, however, the reality is that they engage in deception on occasions. Studies show that the average person lies several times a day. One must assume that lying occurs. To believe everything you are told is problematic. Lying is part of human nature. Lying is a part of child development. Lying starts early in life. Lying turns out to be a developmental milestone. It is a sign that other cognitive skills are developing. Lying uses a lot of brain power. You must remember what you said and retain the truth. You must think about consequences and supporting arguments. Lying creates complexities. Children start lying at two or three years of age. Lying requires complex thinking, so children get better at lying as they age. Lying indicates the child’s discovery that it’s mind and thinking are separate from their parent’s mind.
Lying requires complex mental activity. There is a need to consider the truth of the situation, the beliefs of the person being lied to, and the consequences of being caught in a lie. This makes lying stressful. This is one very good reason to avoid lying. You may be able to handle the unethical component of lying but you will have to bear the stress of lying — the possibility of reputational damage. I say that my most precious asset is my reputation. I must never do things that may damage my reputation.
It is possible that humans are the only animals that are capable of lying. However, we are not the only animal that is capable of deception. The female of one species of spider emits an odor that is a copy of a female moth pheromone. This is often fatal for the male moth. Opossums fake death when threatened. One species of lizard shoots blood from its eyes when attacked. Roosters sometimes give a food call when there is no food present. The hens come running when they hear the call. [*]
The observation that children lie from the age of about three, suggests that lying is an intended characteristic of humans. Why then would we not lie? Why do religions teach us not to lie. There are no laws of the nation-state that tell us not to lie, although there are laws about perjury in courts and laws about fraud.
Most religions have very strict prohibitions against lying. Religious people tend to view lying more negatively than non-religious people. However, it appears that religious people lie at least as much non-religious people. This is Islam on lying:
There are three characteristics of a hypocrite: when he speaks, he lies; when he makes a promise, he acts treacherously; and when he is trusted, he betrays. — Islam, The Holy Prophet (sa), Hadith of Muslim
And another observation from the Koran:
The Holy Qur’an has cursed liars and it adds that liars are companions of Satan. Liars are also dishonest…Satan also engulfs liars. The Holy Qur’an does not only command to not indulge in lying but also to not sit among the company of liars and to not befriend them. Fear God and keep the company of the truthful. — Islam, the Promised Messiah (as), Nur-Al-Qur’an-Part II, P.33
Instruction to Hindus:
All things are determined by speech; speech is their root, and from speech they proceed. Therefore, he who is dishonest with respect to speech is dishonest in everything. — Hinduism, Laws of Manu, 4:56
Instruction to Buddhists:
There is no evil that cannot be done by the liar, who has transgressed the one law of truthfulness and who is indifferent to the world beyond. — Buddhism, Dhammapada, 176
Judaism:
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. — Judaism, Tanakh, Proverbs 12:22
Christianity:
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” — Matthew 12:34-37
One of the Ten Commandments is “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”.
In the Hebrew Bible, those who practice lying and deceit are seemingly rewarded for their actions. This poses problems for an analysis that commands an absolute prohibition.[*] Examples include the Hebrew midwives who lie after Pharaoh commands them to kill all newborn boys [*], and Rahab [*], [*], an innkeeper who lies to soldiers while hiding spies in her inn. The midwives appear to be rewarded for their actions (God “dealt well with the midwives” and “gave them families”). James 2:25 appears to praise Rahab as an example of good works: “And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”[*][*] In the Book of Judith, Judith deceives Holofernes in order to assassinate him. [*] Both Abraham and Isaac claimed that their wives were their sisters.[*]
I personally have problems with the Holy Trinity — the father, son, and the holy spirit. This concept was decided in a meeting room by a group of humans some three hundred and twenty five years after the death of Jesus. My contention is that if you can get people to believe this concept, you can get them to believe almost anything. Similar is happening in the woke fad. This does not mean that I am not a Christian. I believe that a Christian is one that follows in the ‘ways of Jesus’. I call it the ‘Philosophy of Jesus’. In its simplest form, it means that you believe in ‘Common Decency’.
Not everything in the bible is good. The god of the new testament as described by Jesus is generally good. But the God as described by Moses is often evil by the standards of Christians. We must be aware that others live by rules that are entirely different to the unwritten rules of Christendom. Jesus does say that “Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. [*] He is telling us to fear hell, just as a thug will threaten you if you don’t do what the thug demands. But we accept the threat of hell from Jesus because it is for our own good. The doctrine of hell is uncomfortable but so is hell itself. So, hell is ‘uncomfortable’ but so is the concept of hell. Just as we don’t like looking over the parapet at a shopping mall because the reptile brain throws unpleasant chemicals into our system, we don’t do bad stuff because the brain throws bad chemicals into our system due to the concept of hell. However, hunters manage to kill animals and cut them up and cook them and soldiers stick swords into the bellies of so-called ‘enemies’ with whom they have no quarrel. The cannibals of Australia ate their kinfolk without remorse. I doubt that the Vikings felt remorse for their rape and murder. Remorse is a feeling or emotion in the brain. People can be encouraged to mistreat others without conscience. Should we allow the people of Gaza to be destroyed because this type of action is encouraged by Moses? Moses in the ‘Old Testament’ about fifteen-hundred years before Jesus :
You must kill with a sword everyone who lives in that city. Destroy the city completely and kill everyone in it, as well as the animals, with a sword. Gather up everything those people owned, and put it in the middle of the city square. Then completely burn the city and everything they owned as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. That city should never be rebuilt; let it be ruined forever. Don’t keep for yourselves any of the things found in that city, so the Lord will not be angry anymore. He will give you mercy and feel sorry for you, and he will make your nation grow larger, as he promised to your ancestors. [Deuteronomy 13:15-17 New Century Version]
If killing was encouraged in an old holy book, should we should tolerate the perpetrators of genocide. The Christian book, the ‘New Testament’, expects common decency. We are talking a battle of beliefs. Just because my brain does not accept genocide does not mean that others will not accept genocide. It is a strange conundrum. It is the weak point of Christianity. I call it the ‘Paradox of Tolerance’. We tolerate those that are intolerant. The intolerant grow to destroy the tolerant. We cannot allow non-Christians destroy Christianity and Christians. We do little more than moan and groan about others that hate us and kill others. We must toughen up and get used to being called invented names like racist and anti-Semite and throw their ‘hurty words’ back in their faces.
Moses espoused much evil. We must recognize that people operate under these evil doctrines. There are people that believe what Moses advocated is acceptable. God commanded the ‘his’ people to slaughter the Canaanites who apparently were not ‘his’ people. “You must destroy them totally,” God demanded. “Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.” (Deuteronomy. 7:2).
On their to the ‘Promised Land’, God’s people had offered terms of peace to enemy nations. God’s people were to kill only the soldiers of towns that resisted them. However, total war was unleashed upon Canaan. “Do not leave alive anything that breathes,” The God described by Moses insisted that all men, women, children, and animals should all be destroyed. Jesus was much more inclusive. He demanded that people be good to all people. This is a key characteristic of Christmas — good will to all mankind. There is no demand to kill unbelievers. This is the weak point of Christianity. We are required to tolerate those that are intolerant of us.
But with the towns of the people that GOD, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, it’s different: don’t leave anyone alive. Consign them to holy destruction: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, obeying the command of GOD, your God. This is so there won’t be any of them left to teach you to practice the abominations that they engage in with their gods and you end up sinning against GOD, your God. Deuteronomy 20:16-18
Jewish people still follow Moses and the god of the Old Testament along with their Torah. The advice of Martin Luther 1543 was:
“Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death.”
If you want to see Jewish action, watch the phosphorous bombs falling on the biggest concentration camp in the world running under the name of ‘Gaza’. It is on the coast but no port is tolerated! If you want to see Islam in operation, read up on how the Buddhists were ‘cleansed’ from Afghanistan. Perhaps read how the Hindus were ‘cleansed’ from Afghanistan, Kashmir, and many other lands in the region. These were ‘successful’ in that they were buried, along with millions of bodies. Yet, Christians are told that they have higher ideals of tolerance. Christians are told by non-Christians that they are intolerant if they don’t tolerate the intolerant. If Christians do not tolerate intolerant people they are denigrated by persons that are not tolerant. Christians are called Islamophobic and anti-Semitic by groups that persecute Christians. This is clever tactic of these people because their religions are not tolerant so they do not need to be tolerant but Christians are required to be tolerant and are derided if they do not live up to the inappropriate tolerance of intolerance.
In simple terms, humans are capable of lying. Lying is learned from an early age. Lying is likely a characteristic embedded in our DNA. When we became civilized around twelve thousand years ago, religion and culture discouraged lying to create a harmonious society. No individual should ever assume that others are not lying. What then enables us to lie?
When animals or humans pass messages through their facial expressions, they cannot lie to each other. The reptile brain cannot lie. It is our neocortex that allows us to lie through the simple logic of words.
We use our neocortex to deceive. We use words that can be untrue. Animals communicate using their facial expressions controlled by their reptile brain which is incapable of lying.
A lady said: “I look into people eyes and the eyes do not lie. I can see the slightest crease and know it’s a lie.” I can’t detect if someone is lying to me, but it is very feasible that Gordano can detect a lie through facial expression.
The neocortex has the ability to “suppress the truth”, thus aiding in the lying process (Comaford, 2020)
Key areas of the brain that are stimulated when we lie are: the frontal lobe or the neocortex; the limbic system or the amygdala; the temporal lobe; and the anterior cingulate cortex (Comaford, 2020). When lying, there is a “burst of activities in the amygdala” (Stillman, 2018). The amygdala is the part of the brain in charge of emotions, fear, and anxiety. When we lie, we are anxious, stressed, and feel guilty; thus the beehive of activities in the amygdala as the neurons (brain nerve cells) discharge. The frontal lobe (neocortex) is where the white matter is found in the brain. This is the intelligent part of the brain, serving an intellectual role. The neocortex has the ability to “suppress the truth”, thus aiding in the lying process (Comaford, 2020).
They lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them. — Alexander Solzhenitsyn
This very quote may even be a lie! It was certainly written by Elena Gorokhova in 2010, but she may have heard it elsewhere. Gorokhova’s interesting memoir depicts her childhood in 1960s Leningrad and her dissatisfaction with life behind the Iron Curtain. She lived under the rigors of totalitarianism. She would only get to college if she joined the Komsomol, Young Communist League. Her life required daily pretending. She had to repeat the lie to survive: “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying but they keep lying anyway, and we keep pretending to believe them.” Do you repeat lies to survive?
Jordan Peterson, the intellectual thinker, tells us not to give in to the lie: “In a totalitarian state, everyone lies.”
Arendt, in her 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism, studied how propaganda fostered “a curiously varying mixture of gullibility and cynicism with which each member… is expected to react to the changing lying statements of the leaders.” She claims that a “mixture of gullibility and cynicism… is prevalent in all ranks of totalitarian movements”:
In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and nothing was true… The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.
If leaders say something that obviously untrue, and subordinates repeat it with a straight face, we can be sure of the leader’s power over them. We are well on the way to totalitarianism.
“Being made to repeat an obvious lie makes it clear that you’re powerless.” If authority can force you to lie, they have control over you. If a man says that he is a woman, you must now agree that he is a woman.
Welcome to the Russian joke: “So long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work.”
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