Bodyguard of Lies

Whatever everyone thinks is true, is probably wrong. This seems to almost always be the case.

Most people seem to believe that the existence of the spiritual realm is dubious; while the existence of the physical is unquestionable. Philosophically, the opposite is true: the existence of the word of thought is unquestionable and self-evident: cogito, ergo sum. The existence of the physical world, on the other hand, ultimately cannot be logically demonstrated. It is an act of faith.

Most people think the existence of God is an open question. It is not. Philosophically, it is about the strongest certainty available.

Most people think that science has some special handle on truth. It does not; science is a process, and its conclusions change as long as it still lives, internally consistent but without ever arriving at anything properly called “truth.” The philosophy on which science is primarily based, moreover, that of Sir Francis Bacon in Novum Organum, has been conclusively refuted.

Most people think that science and religion are at loggerheads. The opposite is the case: science began as an effort to demonstrate the proof of God’s existence from design, and the fact that science works at all continues to buttress this contention.

Most people think life is freer in the developed world, in North America or Europe, than in most of the Third World—say, in China or Iran. In practical terms, the opposite is the case: there are far more restrictions on what the average person can say or do in America than in China.

Most people think that Nazism or Fascism was extremely efficient. It was not; it was chaos. Most people think that people’s lives were far more regimented under Fascism. The opposite seems actually to have been the case: soldiers could buck orders, for example.

I could go on—but a pattern is clear.

Why should it be so, that the common consensus should be so consistently not just wrong, but the opposite of truth?

I suspect it is because the average person has something to hide. As soon as anyone has something to hide, they have a vested interest in steering as far wide of the truth as possible. So, by common consensus, we work to promote convenient lies; not just because they are convenient, but sheerly because they are lies. A lie, for being a lie, is more valuable to us than the truth.

This is why the devil is called “the father of lies.”

A prophet, by contrast, is merely someone who speaks truth.

Truth is in this sense the essence of all morality. This is an insight shared by creeds as far dispersed as Christianity and Confucianism. English uses the word “honest” as a shorthand for morality generally. Jesus says “the truth shall set you free.” John the Baptist says his task is “to make the ways straight for the Lord.” Confucius, in turn, asked what he would do if ever in power, said that the first task would be “the rectification of terms”: that is, making sure words meant what they were supposed to mean.