Dishonesty is a special sin that is worth specific attention. It’s a sin we treat differently than the rest, in that it is generally regarded as too offensive to call someone a liar, even if they indisputably are, or to call someone out for lying, even when they obviously are. Interestingly, no one likes being called a liar, even people who love lying.
In today’s deeply dishonest culture, where lies are professed as if they were religious mantras, critical thinking capability has become a rare jewel. The beliefs, words, and actions of the majority are so obviously false that a child could see through them—if you could find one who has not already been brainwashed by their parents, peers, or public schools.
We tend to treat dishonesty as most view drinking alcohol—there is no harm as long as you don’t do it too often. It is a mistake to assume that dishonesty is a matter of frequency. In reality, it is more like feces’ ability to contaminate clean water: exactly how much are you comfortable drinking?
Exactly how much dishonesty does it take before a person is a liar? Instead of calculating in terms of how often you need to drink before you are an alcoholic, we ought be thinking in terms of how many times you need to rape someone before you are a rapist.
Dishonesty, no matter how infrequent, will permanently prevent a person from encountering the most valuable outcomes in life. To claim otherwise is to claim that what you do in life doesn’t impact the outcomes you receive. To claim that occasional dishonesty does no harm is to believe that your actions don’t matter. They do.
Dishonesty is sold as something that has the power to make life better for yourself or others. This is itself a lie.
Everything we say, do, or think while knowing it is not true makes it harder for others to know, do, or say what is true. Everything.
Everything we say, do, or think while knowing it is not true makes it harder for us to know, do, or say what is true. Everything.
Lying causes harm to yourself and others. Your dishonesty will make it harder for others to believe you, and harder for you to believe other people.
When it becomes frequent, dishonesty has a shocking ability to render someone totally devoid of decency and common sense, and can quickly convert what was a normal person into someone capable of the most horrendous atrocities.