Why Believe A Lie

As seen in the HEARTbeat the Village Voice

“Why Believe a Lie?”

            I heard someone recently say, “Why do people believe a lie so easily yet require indisputable evidence to accept the truth?”  I’ll let you ponder that for a second.  Now, how true is that statement?  We believe a lie for multiple reasons, one of which is a lie requires less effort to accept.  Don’t feel bad, because we are all human, and it is human nature to be such.  The issue boils down to the difference in aspects of this issue: fabrication versus authentication.

            How easy is it to tell a lie?  Don’t ask a child that question, because they will fabricate a long list of difficulties just to tell a lie!  Get my point?  Kids are the worst.  When my nephew was young, he would come into the house and tell his mom, “I just saw a dinosaur in the back yard!”  His mother would ask what kind of dinosaur.  “It was a Tyrannosaurus, because it had little arms and big teeth,” he replied.  “Well, what was it doing?” mom would inquire.  “Nothing,” he said, “Just walking across the back yard.”  I think she could have asked him the color, the size of its teeth, the size of its feet, and where it came from and where did it go.  He would have come up with an answer to each one of those questions.  This is the same child who would argue with an adult about the color of the sky.  “The sky is blue John.”  He would reply, “No it’s not, it’s green.”  The fabrications of a young mind can be hilarious.

            Adults are really no different.  When a lie is fabricated, the individual already has layer upon layer of fabrication ready to make the lie more believable and acceptable.  And when the person needs to utilize the layers, they roll off their tongue so easily.  We think, “Wow, so it must be true.”  Why are we so ready to believe something for which there is no foundational data?  The real question is, why do we not do the digging for ourselves to either dispel the lie or authenticate it as the truth?

            This problem is not a new one, as we see over and over a mistruth perpetuated in today’s media.  The problem is as old as creation itself.  We know that Satan hates anything that God has created and that which worships Him.  Therefore, Satan attempts to mess up all good, or should I say, all God things.  Questioning God’s instructions is the age-old sin, and it started in the Garden of Eden.  “Oh, he really didn’t say you would die, did he?” Satan asked of Eve.  He caused doubt to enter the mind of Eve, and she questioned God’s instructions given to and through Adam.  That was only the beginning.

            This very issue is present in some of today’s denominations, sad to say.  “Oh, that’s not what the scripture means,” they will say.  They twist it to serve their desires, just like Satan did in the garden.

            The Apostle Paul warns us in his letter to Timothy, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

            Be careful of ears that itch!