In the 19th century logicians simulated, and thereby simplified, the real world understanding of truth by assigning true/false (one/zero) values to logical connectives in truth tables. Although this was ingenious, the ancient liar paradox remained to haunt the simulation.
The liar paradox gets started by assuming the existence of a Liar who always lies. It immediately reaches its punchline by having that Liar assert as true: This statement is false.
What was forgotten in modern attempts to sanitize the liar was that a truth table only discerns between true and false, one and zero, not between truth and lie. The real world ethical understanding of truth gets covered by a coat of white paint in modern logic. Even in the ancient paradox, the ethical problem got a white-wash as well because a real world deceiver is worse than this hypothetical Liar. A real world deceiver is even more deceptive because he doesn’t always lie.
There’s an older story than the Greek one about the Liar. In Genesis 3, we read about the first deception with death being its real world consequence.
There are many today who see themselves as too “rational” to believe that the deception and fall as mentioned in Genesis 3 actually happened. I suspect that their belief in modern rationality has led them to prefer reality white-washed into truth tables containing only ones and zeros. With a truth table it is easy to forget that a falsehood is the word of a lying deceiver. Speaking such deception is an act of evil, not just a zero in a computer program.
A solution to the Liar paradox would be to reject the Liar without taking seriously anything he had to say. This is what people do in the real world. When they hear lies, they reject the liars. They don’t fret about the English language’s ability to express garbage. People are free to lie. The structure of language itself doesn’t stop them.
If falsehood is a lying deception, what then is truth? The truth has been white-washed as well. We find it easier today to think of truth as an “it”. But if one wants to recover the real world significance of falsehood as deception, as I do, then truth would have to be ethical as well.
Only a living person can be ethical. Only an ethical person can show others through His true words the way to life. Such a Person could be seen as being the truth.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 
Absolutely Brilliant! I tell you the truth!
Right and Wrong can be whitewashed and faded and adjusted and even tinted green if you wish. But they’ve made truth so amorphous that it has no substance. Falsity, as a function of truth, becomes a moot point. But we KNOW there’s truth, and we seek it.
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Good point, Rebecca. We know there is truth and He is whom we are seeking in spite of being deceived along the way. Blessings to you!
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Amen. When we come face to face with the truth, all lies fall away.
Blessings.
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Good point: Lies fall away when we come face to face with the truth which we will one day. Blessings, Michael!
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Good evening Frank. Your article is very timely and pertinent. We get many lies and distortions from the truth in these times and in this nation from media and politicians. Case in point the lap top from hell, Folks need to learn from the Bible and its warnings and above all dont drink the Kool Aid!
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Good reminder that all of the deceptions we have been subjected to in recent years only leads us back to learning from the Bible. Blessings!
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You’ve expressed this beautifully.
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Thank you, Mimi! Blessings to you!
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“Only a living person can be ethical.” You’ve put your finger on the nub of the matter.
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Thank you, Dora! Blessings!
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Wow! Truth is a perfect person who is unable to lie, God the Son, came in the flesh as a man, yet never sinned. Satan is the father of all lies. He mixes truth with lies, which makes all of it a lie. 1 truth teller, one liar. We are the spoil….Great reminder here Rev 21:5″…I am making all things new…”
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Good point about Satan. He “mixes truth with lies, which makes all of it a lie.” Blessings, Mary, and thank you!
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