There used to be a TV game show called, “To Tell the Truth.” In it, the host would read the biography of someone with interesting experiences or an interesting job. Then, three contestants would appear, each claiming to be the person described. The celebrity panel would then ask questions of the contestants, trying to discern which were faking it, and which one was telling the truth. The more the panel got wrong, the more money the contestants would win.
It’s a good thing “to tell the truth.” The Bible commands it, whether in the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament (Exodus 20:16), or the New Testament’s admonition to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). To lie is to do the work of the devil, whom Jesus called, “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).
Truthfulness to a Christian should be like breathing, a natural part of living. After all, our lives are based in the Ultimate Truth, Jesus Christ (“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” [John 14:6]).
Unfortunately, when it comes to the world today, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christians, and everyone else, to distinguish between what is true and what is false in the massive amounts of information we take in daily. We hear terms like “disinformation,” misinformation,” and “fake news.” For a long time we have had “photo-shopped” pictures, and now we have artificial intelligence (AI) generating phony audio and video of political leaders saying things they never said or did. It has become scary-easy to be fooled by such doctored media.
Having heard about one such AI engine, ChatGPT, I went to the site and asked it to write a story about Karen at Christmas (her favorite holiday). In just 2 seconds, it spit out a 525 word story that began with:
Karen was a whirlwind of festive energy when it came to Christmas. Her passion for the holiday season was infectious, and she was known as the neighborhood’s very own Mrs. Claus. Every year, Karen transformed her home into a winter wonderland, adorning It with twinkling lights, cheerful ornaments, and an array of decorations that would make the North Pole jealous.
Scary. I also asked it to write a 500 word essay on the theme of this blog. Again, 2 seconds later, came the reply, starting with:
In an era saturated with information and inundated by opinions, discerning truth has become an intricate task, demanding a thoughtful, multifaceted approach. The quest for truth is foundational to human progress, societal harmony, and personal growth. However, today’s landscape, with its digital advancements, diverse narratives, and rampant misinformation, presents a labyrinthine challenge in identifying what is genuinely true.
Yikes! I’ve been replaced! (And from now on, whenever you read one of my blogs, you’ll be asking yourself, “Did Rich write this blog, or was it AI?”)
So, why is it so hard to discern the truth in today’s society? What is about today’s “landscape” (as ChatGPT calls it) that presents such a challenge?
1. Our propensity to lie. From an early age, we lie to avoid blame and punishment, or to gain an advantage over other people. Children with chocolate all over their face deny getting into the candy. Dads tell their kids that the good Halloween candy got spoiled and he had to throw it away. Spouses cheat on each other, athletes take performance-enhancing drugs and lie about it, and politicians take bribes and deny it. We even lie to ourselves: “I’ll start exercising . . . tomorrow for sure!” Scripture says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
2. The schemes of the devil. The one who first lied to Eve, denying God’s warning about the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:4-5), continues to lie to us today. His temptations are lies – showing us a tasty apple while hiding the worm inside. He lies about our salvation filling us with hopeless guilt, or puffing us up with destructive pride. He turns people against each other with hateful lies, and against God with the lies of pseudo-scientific philosophies. (Acts 5:3 and 1 Thessalonians 3:5).
3. Advertising. From the 1949 ad that “More doctors smoke Camels” to the 1965 Brylcreem commercial’s promise: “The gals will all pursue ya,— They’ll love to put their fingers through your hair.” advertisers have said almost anything to get you to buy their product. And did you ever win a “free weekend” at some resort, subject to a “45 minute” presentation for some “exciting opportunity?”
4. Propaganda. Similar to false advertising, propaganda seeks to mold opinions and actions to suit some political agenda. Fabricated stories against political opponents, trumped up legal charges, fabricated videos and emails that put your opponent in a bad light, and false witnesses are just a few of the lies used toward a desired end. A recent example concerns the horrific attack by Hamas against Israel: some pro-Palestinian supporters claim it never happened. Then Hamas claimed that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza and killed 500 people, including children. Later, we learned that the hospital was not bombed, and the only rocket to come close was fired by a Hamas ally. Media are so filled with self-serving political claims that it’s hard to know what to believe.
5. Human error. “To err is human, to forgive divine.” So goes the 1711 quote by Alexander Pope. It is certainly one of the truer truisms about life. We don’t need to have evil intentions when we tell someone something that is false: we may ourselves believe it to be true. For example, in school we learned that George Washington had false teeth made of wood. We repeated it to others, thinking it was a fact (a certain cherry tree comes to mind, as well). Now we know his teeth were made of actual teeth. Another example: one Thanksgiving we were visiting family and were having dinner at their church. It was a fun event until the pastor announced that the Soviets had launched missiles at the US and our missiles were responding. The mood turned somber, until I realized his description of events matched a TV show I had just been watching before the dinner; he had seen part of the show and thought it was really happening. Fortunately, no one took any drastic actions before the mistake was cleared up!
6. Computer errors. “To err is human, to really mess up takes a computer.” So says Rich Eddy in 2023. Another truthful truism, I kid you not. We trust computers and their output for all kinds of information, from weather patterns to predictions of eclipses. Unfortunately, computers have sometimes made horrible mistakes, and fortunately, people were in the loop and doubted what the computers were saying.
- October 5, 1960 – NORAD computers alerted that a massive Soviet missile strike was coming at the U.S. When people checked it out, they found sensors had misread a sunrise as missile launches, and a counter strike was averted.
- December 26, 1983 – Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov was on duty at a Soviet early-warning base outside Moscow. He found himself staring at a red screen reading “START” as an alert siren wailed. The computer deemed that a single missile was incoming, followed by a salvo of five. Lt. Col. Petrov had a hunch the warning was a computer error, so he shut things down instead of launching -and saved the world from catastrophe.
- January 13 2018 – Sirens and alerts on radio, TV, and cell phones warned Hawaiians that the islands were under nuclear attack, with the words, “Emergency alert – this is not a drill!” Fortunately, it was another computer error, and nobody died.For all these reasons – and more – we need to read, view, and hear information with a skeptical attitude that is ready to compare what we are told with what we know to be true. Just as Secret Service agents compare suspected counterfeit bills with authentic ones to determine they are bogus, so we need to compare the counterfeit claims of our culture, and the people in it, to what we know to be true.And how do we know what is true? We begin with the Word of God. We believe that it is infallible and inerrant, meaning it is without errors or deceptions. 1 Peter 1:24-25 tell us that the word of the Lord remains forever, and Numbers 23:19 says that God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. God’s word is true, eternal and unchangeable; what better standard of truth could there be? Jesus himself said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, and Luke 21:33).
It is to Jesus, the Truth, to whom the Scriptures testify. The closer we get to him, and the more immersed we are in his Word, the more brightly shines the truth and the more obvious the world’s lies become. He and his word are our touchstone. True, the Bible doesn’t expose every lie out there – such as whether the gals really will love to put their fingers through my hair – but it will reveal the ones that threaten my soul. And to tell the truth, that is what really matters!
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: John 1:14-17; John 4:23-24; John 8:31-32.
P.S. Except for the two examples I included, I did not use ChatGPT to write this blog!