By: Jim Taylor

Living in a world of lies


I think I’m having a crisis of faith.

        Conservative Christians probably believe my crisis of faith happened long ago when, from their perspective, I sold out to something horrible called “secular humanism.”

        As I understand it, secular humanism believes that

• Dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not accepted blindly.
• Weighing and testing depend on critical reason, factual evidence, and scientific methods of inquiry.
• New knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of truth.
• Life becomes more meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements, and the outlooks of those who differ from us.
• Individual, social, and political principles of ethical conduct must be judged by their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility.
• An open marketplace of ideas, good will, and tolerance enables progress in building a better world for ourselves and our children.

        I don’t object to anything in those principles.
sp;  Conservative Christians attack “secular humanism” because it specifically rejects divine revelation of truth. They see “secular humanism” itself as a crisis of faith.



A litany of lies

But it’s not my faith in God that’s giving me trouble. It’s my faith in humanity that’s in crisis.

Brian Mulroney, for example. I always thought a prime minister should set a good example for a nation’s citizens.

        Mulroney sued the government of Canada for defamation of character. He swore, under oath, that he had had no dealings with German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber.

        Now it turns out that while he was defending his character, he accepted $300,000 from Schreiber. Bank records confirm the payment. Mulroney declared the $300,000 on his income tax – late, but he did declare it.

        Bluntly put, Mulroney lied. The court awarded him $2.1 million in damages.

        Two weeks ago, I watched four RCMP officers kill a man. There is no question that Robert Dziekanski was alive when those officers first confronted him; there is no question that he was dead shortly after.

        But at the time of his death, on October 14, the RCMP claimed that Dziekanski had been aggressive and violent. They had to use a Taser to defend themselves, they said.

        Without Paul Pritchard’s video, I would probably have believed them.



Self-serving deceptions

Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona, denied that their product had caused any deaths. Their statement said, in part,

        “Medical science and forensic analysis has shown that these deaths are attributable to other factors… The role of the Taser device has been cleared in every case…

        "Cardiac arrest caused by electrical current is immediate. The video of the incident at the Vancouver airport indicates that the subject was continuing to fight well after the Taser application. This continuing struggle could not be possible if the subject died as a result of the Taser device electrical current causing cardiac arrest. His continuing struggle is proof that the Taser device was not the cause of his death.”

        Amnesty International documented 16 deaths in Canada following use of a Taser, ten of them recent. The claim that a 50,000-volt shock had no effect on any of those deaths is, I would guess, about as believable as the tobacco industry’s claim that cigarette smoking didn’t lead to lung cancer.

        Or, for that matter, the U.S. Department of Defence’s claim that ex-soldiers’ mental health problems are not related to their service in Iraq.

        In the 1980s, tainted blood supplies infected more than 20,000 people with hepatitis C and more than 1,000 people with HIV. At least 3,000 people died. But all the time, Canadian Red Cross officials insisted that their blood supplies were safe.



Loss of honesty

 I still believe that most individuals would rather tell the truth than a lie. If nothing else, it’s a lot easier to remember the story that actually happened than to try to keep track of which variant you told to what person, when.

        But as soon as people speak as representatives of an organization – government, business, professional association, political party, even church – they seem to lose their commitment to the truth. Defending the institution matters more than personal integrity.

        I’m beginning to feel that I live in a world of lies.

        The RCMP lied.

        The tobacco industry lied.

        The Red Cross lied.

        The Liberals lied about sponsorships.

        Stephen Harper lied about taxing income trusts.

        Bill Clinton lied about Monica Lewinski.

        Richard Nixon lied about Watergate; Lyndon Johnson lied about Vietnam.

        George Bush has lied about so many things that I seriously doubt if he’s capable of recognizing what’s true and what isn’t.

        Journalist Joel Hirschhorn mused about next year’s U.S. elections: “We should not be impressed by the prospect of having the first woman, first black, or first Latino president. What would be far more radical would be to have the first honest president…”



Destroying trust?

    I’ve heard so many lies, I’m tempted not to trust anyone any more. And that would be tragic – because our society is built on trust.

        Or at least, it used to be.

        Trust is an incredibly fragile commodity. As parents, Joan and I got upset when children did something wrong. But we got more upset when they lied about it. We could replace a broken lamp or repair a damaged car; we couldn’t as easily restore a loss of trust.

        Ironically, trust is the first emotion that we experience. A baby learns to trust certain people long before it learns to love them. We trust friends, even if we disagree with them. A couple who cannot trust each other are headed for marital breakdown.

        Once trust is broken, it takes a long time to rebuild it.

        I wonder if the people in leadership positions have any sense of how much damage they do to the fabric of our society when they choose to deceive instead of telling the unvarnished truth.

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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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