If posed the question whether or
not lying or telling a lie can ever be good, my answer is always: “No!” But is
it that simple?
For a start there certainly are
different types of lies.
Type 1: The outrageous lie
This is a lie along the lines of
I caught a sardine the size of a Vespa this weekend, or I drank a swimming pool
of beers last night etc. These lies are not really bad, because the exaggeration
is obvious and the person being told the story takes it with a healthy dollop
of salt.
Type 2: The sugar-coated lie
These lies protect those being
told the lie from uncomfortable truths, such as sparing graphic details when
describing the injuries sustained in an accident. The other party knows there
was sugar-coating and omissions in order to prevent them from feeling bad or retching
and thus is probably kind of glad to have received only half-truths.
Type 3: The trusted lie
These are always bad. This lie
differs from the first two in that the party being lied to does not know what
they’re being told is false and does not question it. And why do they not
question it? Because the liar is operating from a position of extreme trust.
And this is precisely why these lies are so bad.
One does not easily question what
one is told by a parent, because in most cases, one’s life experience is such
that one has witnessed several occasions where a parent has acted to the good
of oneself.
One does not easily question a
teacher, though they are obviously as fallible as anyone else, but operate from
a position of power and trust.
One does not easily question a
police officer, as one has witnessed these receive trust from one’s parents,
from whom one learns whom to respect and trust.
Trusted lies are told by people
who know they are telling a lie and use the power of trust to intentionally
manipulate the person they are lying to; such as when a paedophile gym coach misuses
the trust relationship to tell a child it isn’t bad when he touches them there
or that his parents will die, if he tells anyone what they’re up to.
Trusted lies are also told by
people whom you trust, who retell lies told to them by people they trust, but
where the truth of the statement has never been questioned and where the
original lie must have come from a manipulator, who knew they were using their
position to disseminate a lie for gain.
It is important we find agreement
that misusing the position of trust to tell a lie that is trusted or believed
is always wrong, because of the trust relationship that does not allow the
person being lied to, to question the verity of the statement. It does not
matter what your intention is in telling such a lie, because you take from the
person you’re lying to, the ability to arrive at a rational conclusion of their
own.
And the most evil example of the
trusted lie is when someone in a position of power, be it your parents,
preacher or teacher shapes the entire way you live your life and how you reason
by telling you that a god exists they have no evidence of other than that they
trusted the god lie told them in the past. This lie robs you of the ability to reason
logically, to question and to live the best, most fulfilling life you possibly
can on this earth, having reasoned that there is no evidence of an after-life.
When you’re first told the lie of
Santa Claus it is a trusted lie that gives your parents power over you, they
can manipulate their knowledge of Santa to influence your behaviour threatening
that bad behaviour will preclude you from Santa’s gifts. However the day you
realise that no pot-bellied, reindeer riding, ho ho could possibly deliver 6
billion gifts down chimneys during the course of one 24 hour period, you arrive
at the point where this trusted lie your parents told you changes to an
exaggerated lie and they lose the power the lie allowed them over you.
Similarly the day you realise
that no boat could ever have been built to accommodate at least 5 000 species
of mammals, 9 000 species of birds and more than a millions species of
insect (this is not an exaggerated lie) the power that the church and the
distributors of this lie have over you is lost.
This lie gives power to those
that would spread lies and deceit for their own gain, be it financial or power.
Those that thrive off of manipulating positions of trust for their own gain.
They sell lies.
How do I know religion and the
belief in a god or gods is a lie? Because there is only one version of the
truth, that is how the truth works. The truth is unchanging and constant. So
the very fact that 100s if not thousands of gods and religions have existed
throughout man’s history and that different versions of holy texts exist means
at minimum 99.9% of religious beliefs are lies as they contradict one another
and when one realises that 99.9% of the members of a gang are outright liars
then it is not a big jump to paint the last 0.1% with the same brush.
Why do we trust the clergy? It is
a learned habit in the same way that we learn to be cautious around snakes, we
mimic the behaviour and habits of people we trust, but it does not make the
clergy trustworthy.
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