"There
is no connection
between a lie and Truth"
JUDGE
SEPTIMUS J. HANNA, CSD
Jesus said the devil was a liar and the
father of it. The only Father — Truth — is not its
father because there is no connection between a lie and
Truth. If a statement is made which has no basis in truth
there is no relation between that statement and the truth.
Therefore, is it in any true sense (even humanly) a lie
about the truth? Is not Jesus' classification of a lie
equivalent to saying that it is nothing, no thing? How then
can it be related to Truth? The only possible sense in which
a lie can be said to be related to truth is that a lie may
be believed to be true by one not knowing any better, but
does that make it a lie about the truth? If so, how? It
could not be a lie about the truth unless it could in some
way be considered with the truth. How could one go about
making such a connection? If I were to tell you that I rode
a horse yesterday when the truth is I have not been astride
a horse for forty years, would that be telling you a lie
about anything that ever occurred? It would simply be
telling a lie about a lie, would it not? Such lies can be
told in millions of ways for millions of years, but that
would not make them true. Therefore from no possible point
of view is it correct to say that a lie is always a lie
about something. Hence I repeat that absolutely it is not
possible to lie about Truth, and relatively it is not
possible to talk about evil at all without telling a lie
about a lie.
Extract from a
letter by Judge Septimus J. Hanna,
CSD
September 17,
1917
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