True Lies

I am tired of being lied to. I just scanned my spam blocker's contents and found two I thought were not spam. One had UPS in the address and the other something about Mail Delivery; both had suspicious looking links in the text and multiple recipients even though they were supposedly personal information. I dumped them both back into Spamland without opening them.

Truth bending advertisers have been tricking gullibles into questionable purchases since advertising was born, I imagine. Fliers circulated in 17th century Britain lured adventurers with promise of untold wealth to be had in "Virginia," the generic name for the New World of North America. The history of Plymouth or Jamestown reports the scoop on that story. Early American snakeoil salesmen promised elixirs that would cure everything from gout to shyness. Some were herbal potions with potential healing effects, but many were little more than colored water with a shot of liquor for taste.

Today claims are shouted from all around us, from late night TV to endless email spam blasts. The ones that upset me the most, though, come from advertising driven by politics. One should not be surprised; again, history is replete with examples of less-than-truthful politicians. If one examines the root of the word, there is no surprise. A dietitian specializes in diet; an optician specializes in eyes; a politician specializes in the "polis," the people. They know how to work the crowd, con the mark and fleece the pilgrims.

Even knowing this, I still hate being lied to. There are too many examples to count, but I will offer three. George H.W. Bush emphatically declared in his presidential campaign that he would propose, "No new taxes! Read my lips," he famously said. We all know how that played out. Then there is Clinton's infamous, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Right. Today it is Obama decrying the partisan spirit in politics, saying repeatedly that he dislikes party rancor. Yet he is the one who insults Republican Congressman Paul Ryan who is sitting on the front row of his budget speech. He is the one who insinuates that Republicans want to dismantle Medicare and Social Security. He is the one who brands Tea Party members as radical extremists. Etcetera ad nauseum.

Finally on my list of peevish liars are the atheists who claim to know there is no god. This cannot be true, logically, and I suspect Christopher Hitchens and the gang are intelligent enough to realize this. But they promulgate the lie regardless. They may think there is no god, and for that position I would say, "Bon chance." But to categorically exclude the possibility that a god exists is arrogant foolishness. The ground for many atheists belief is in fact their disbelief in the miraculous. They cannot imagine a being of higher intellect and power than their own inflated ego, so they deny such a being can exist. One wonders if worms slithering across wet sidewalks deny the existence of boot-shod feet.

I am thinking about miracles and truth just now because it is Resurrection Sunday. Many people, sadly even some who call themselves Christians (only God knows,) do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. The philosopher known as Apostle Paul body slams that idea by asserting that without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no Christianity. Sine qua non. Christ Jesus' return from the grave is the miracle of Truth in the flesh, or is it the truth of a fleshed out miracle? However you conceive it, because He died, I live; because He lives, I will never die. And I will always hate the lie.