Lies

I've been pondering two things the last few weeks. This is one. The other will follow. 

What is the greatest sin, do you think? Smarter people than me have debated this. I've heard various arguments over the years for it being suicide, apostasy, murder, adultery, etc. 

Last night, I decided that, for me, the greatest sin is to lie. 

One of the first stories in the Bible is the Fall of Man (original sin), when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent (the Devil) and brought sin into the world with an act of disobedience: eating from the one tree in the Garden of Eden that God said not to eat from. (Seriously, you had one job...) 

In Genesis 3, the serpent asks Eve if God really said that they couldn't eat from the tree? Eve replies that God said if they ate from the tree, they would die. The serpent tells Eve, "No, you will not die, but instead you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 

The last part of the statement was true. But the first part, the crucial part about not dying? That was a lie. Instead of living in paradise as immortals, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and suddenly had an end date to the comparative misery they would suffer. Welcome to earth, people. 

Eternal damnation because of a lie. 

Lies hurt, because eventually the truth is always going to come out, even if you are very skilled at falsehoods. Lies are one of the ultimate forms of disrespect. You don't respect my trust when you lie. You don't respect my intelligence when you lie. You don't respect my love when you lie to me. 

Bottom line, you don't respect me. 

But you obviously don't respect yourself either. And a person without self respect is a dangerous person, because they will have no shame in committing any offense against themselves or against others.

Self respect is defined as, "Having pride in oneself; a feeling that one is behaving with honor and dignity." 

The positions one puts themselves and others in by lying is the complete opposite of dignity and honor. The opposite of honor? Disgrace. Baseness. Insult. DISRESPECT. When you lie, you debase yourself as much as the people you are lying to. 

Lies are dangerous. The longer you tell them, the less credibility you have until you're in a hole full of your own bullshit that's so deep, you won't ever be able to dig yourself out of it. You'll call for help, and no one will hear you.

Well, no, that's not true. They'll hear you. They just won't believe you.