The fasting period of the year 2024 begins in mid-February. It is useful and sensible to prepare for this in such a way that fasting really brings the precious fruits that our Lord and we expect from it. Fasting always means confronting a given period of our life, and we learn that just as the careful vinedresser prunes the vines in time so that they bear more fruit, so should it be with our lives. One of the most common, often undetected defects, our unproductive vines is lying, slipping, and eavesdropping. It is a civilizational harm that, like weeds in wheat, almost imperceptibly enmeshes our lives, and we only notice its suffocating presence when it weaves its way around. It is a global phenomenon, which is proven by the statistics presented below. But whether it is the end of the world, a stroke of fate, or a universal principle, just a fact of life or an individual anthropological fate, is questionable. We will also write about what can be done about it.

WORLD PRINCIPLE, EXISTENCE, ANTHROPOLOGICAL FATE?

In ancient Greek philosophy, there was a common saying: all Cretans are liars. I am Cretan. So…?

For as long as humanity has been thinking consciously, and the best of them, they have been confronted with the problem of lies.

In almost all ancient religions, philosophies, and mythology, there is the problem of lying, not only as a moral issue, but also as an ontological, existential theory, and then as a religious and moral fact of existence.

Before we get into the shocking statistics, let's take a quick look at the historical reality of lying. I leave aside the individual, community, national, power, political, economic, mythological, ideological history and longitudinal section of the lie, rather we look at some of the lessons of the cross-section of many millennia.

In world religions and moral philosophies, laws, and etiquette catalogs, the lie generally appears in such a way that the person living with it thinks or believes that he can lead the addressee, during which the actual reality is veiled, concealed, masked, covered with a mask of words, and beautified. In a stricter sense, we speak of a lie when the liar goes against the accepted moral laws, rules, and morals, and wants to play them for some reason or purpose.

In our Judeo-Christian culture, lying is expressly forbidden in the Ten Commandments.

And Jesus uses harsh words when he calls the devil, as the father of lies, a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44), who when he speaks of himself is "a liar and the father of lies."

The Master here uses the Greek word pseudos for the father of lies, which refers to disguise, to cover up, which is the characteristic of a lie. One always covers something with it, as the father of lies does. On the other hand, referring to himself, Jesus says that he speaks the reality, the unvarnished truth, the aletheia (John 8:45). The world drama is that they do not believe in Him, only those who are of the truth, of God (John 8:47). What do Jesus' revealing words reveal? A lot of things. In fact, everything.

First of all, the lie is not a world-operating principle, but has a beginning and an end, and is a negative action.

It is not a fate, an unchanging reality, but lasts until Jesus uncovers it with His truth and the lived reality revealed by Him.

As much as the world seems to be running on a well-oiled conveyor belt of lies, it is only an appearance, a pseudosense. Pseudo/appearance success, pseudo/appearance order. A lie is not a given that God created in the world. Until the snake, there was no lie in prehistory, the beginning of the human world, in the life of Adam and Eve It was not even human, chromosomal degeneration, except for compulsive liars for psychological reasons. Nor is it an anthropological doom.

Basic situation - changeable. The post-lapsarian, the basic situation of the world after the fall of sin, which can be improved where this fallenness is recognized and the principles of the way, truth, and life in Christ are tried to be followed, educated and passed on.

"There is now no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death"

- Paul writes the great liberating Word (Romans 8, 1-2). The lie is therefore not a principle of existence, not a universal principle, not a human unchangeable X. Consequence, which can be left as it is, but can be acted against in order to avoid the avalanche of man-killers.

WHAT DO LIE STATISTICS SAY?

When I put it like this in the title: the physics of lying, I meant its nature, which can cause real pain to individuals, but also to millions of people! Sometimes lies cause serious damage to the body and soul, like a huge traffic accident to the victims.

The lie statistics , the facts of which we are now confronted with, are based on research institute surveys, individual interviews, and questionnaire research. The 2023 surveys of mainly Anglo-Saxon public opinion research and sociological institutes distinguish between male and female interviewees of different age groups and social status. They examine the proportion of relational lies in marriage and other relationships, in social media, in workplace relationships, in different countries. The most common finding is that

minor slips and lies already occur when people talk to each other for 10 minutes. 60% of the interlocutors were already "fluffling" or slipping during this time.

Men use it more (six times) than women (three times) a day. 90% of those who use online platforms lie. 80% of women slip and beautify themselves in order to be seen by their partner. 50% of teenagers lie and lie to their parents to cover up what is happening on a daily basis. It's easier for people to make moves on Facebook and mobile phones than face-to-face. Among many thousands of respondents, 81% provide false information about their weight and age.

Politicians drop at least one slip or lie in five minutes, especially when they are in a dispute with someone.

On average, regardless of country, it can be established that 1-2 lies, slips, and half-truths fit into people's everyday lives. This seems little, but it means at least 730 lies per year. It is interesting that more people lie and cheat in the afternoon than in the morning, which is related to the fact that their self-control weakens as the hours pass. We will write about how the countries of the world rank and where they stand in terms of lies, as well as why and for what purpose people resort to this tool, and what types of everyday lies there are, as well as the most common counter-strategy, in another article.

Our small mirror of self-knowledge before Lent is the Word of God itself. The full and perfect truth in all respects. Whoever looks into it does not see himself in it, but Him who is the way, the truth and the life. And this is good, because only Jesus and His speech, followed by an awakened, living conscience, is the truly effective antidote to all slips, half-truths, and lies. Today, the apostolic admonition is especially valid: "If someone says: I love God, but hates his brother, he is a liar" (1 John 4:20).

A real fasting cleansing to everyone!

Dr. Lajos Békefy