Hiding the truth is evil. God said so; I’m just trying to bring everyone up to date on that.
Fundamentally, deception is aimed at getting someone to act according to false information. It’s manipulation, interfering in the process of decision making, a form of enslavement. It’s dehumanizing the other person. God won’t allow that to prosper in the long run, so any use of deception is removing whatever protection you might otherwise gain by observing God’s Laws.
When Jesus warned about casting your pearls before swine, He was speaking within a specific context. He was hammering the Pharisees about having embraced Hellenism and rejecting their own Hebrew intellectual assumptions. So when they read the Torah or any other part of the Hebrew Scriptures, they always missed the point. His comment was about entrusting the mission of revealing God to people who had no clue about it. It was not about whether you should be honest with everyone. And the question of civility is a matter of not burdening others with information they can’t use for good purposes. Information overload is just another form of deception, since it denies others the opportunity to evaluate for themselves what they must do.
On a human level, ignoring God and morality, it would appear deception is quite effective. For example, the current price of raw petroleum at $80/barrel is not an honest price. We have whole tankers loaded with oil sitting at docks waiting to unload their liquid cargo because the fixed storage tanks are full. Nor is it about refinery capacity, since many were shut down for no reason other than to reduce supply and force the price up. Yes, it was a cartel agreement; they lie about competing against each other. Actually, demand nearly died last year, compared to what it had been previously. Honestly sold, oil would be closer to half that price. Market speculators have created a climate of fear so that less informed market players — the majority — would bid up the price of oil. They have manipulated the market; they are lying and it’s profitable for them.
It’s the same trick used to lie about the alleged threat of Islam. Let’s get real; if the billion or so Muslims in this world really wanted to take over, they could easily and it wouldn’t take long. Just so you’ll know: Not a single “Muslim terrorist” in this world would be active were it not for secret provocations by the CIA or some other clandestine service for any number of governments. Every Muslim terror threat to the US is created and controlled by our own CIA. The idea is to keep us all fearful and worked up so we’ll go along with the measures of increasing the police state.
Want to talk about the threat of Iran’s growing nuclear technology? Come back and talk to me after Israel starts playing by the same rules as everyone else, particularly regarding their own nuclear industry. There is only one terrorist government in the Middle East, and it’s the government of Israel. Compare their actions with the definition of terrorism: the attempt to use fear and terror, threats of violent force, to affect government policies. Hamas was freely elected despite Israeli interference in the election process. The only meaningful opposition to Hamas is Abbas, a known client (employee) of Israel’s government. Oh, and Israel created Hamas in the first place, but it seems to have gotten away from them.
It’s not just individuals; the Laws of God are specifically aimed at governments, and only secondarily at individuals. So prohibitions on deception apply more to governments than to individuals. But it seems to work. For now. No, wait… God’s wrath is falling on the US right now. Earthquakes, anyone? Crazy weather? Massive increase in pests resistant to pesticides? Major diseases resistant to medicine? Stupid-evil-crazy politicians? God could easily stop any of that, but He’s got a very good reason to keep it going. We refuse to play by His rules.
And we lie about it.
