by Jason Stotts
Last night I went with M. and saw The Invention of Lying. It was awesome.
The premise of the movie is that their world is a parallel universe divergent from our own only in that the people of this universe have never developed the ability to lie. In fact, they lack even a concept of true and false, they have only “it was” or “it wasn’t,” the idea that one could purposefully deceive is inconceivable to them.* Further, they seem incapable of even trying to lie by omission and bluntly say whatever is on their mind. This, of course, makes for some pretty hilarious conversations.
I won’t give away too much of the plot here, but one of the major implications of the fact that lying has never developed and people can only tell the truth is that there are some pretty substantial things missing from their world: fiction, advertising (as we know it), security, and…religion. Since people can only tell the truth, no one has ever invented religion in their world and they recognize that after death a person ceases to be. In fact, religion only comes onto the scene as the main character (played by Ricky Gervais) tells his dying mother a comforting story about what happens after death.
I can’t recommend that you go and see this movie strongly enough. I’ve only seen it once and it’s already one of my favorite movies of all time. For those of you who are religious, think about the implications for your faith. For those of you who are atheist, enjoy a moment of what the world could look like without religion (although, I’m not sure we’d really want that world).
I just think it’s great that there is actually a mainstream movie that has managed to challenge the insanity of religious faith in a way that people will actually watch it. I hope that this film causes at least some people to do away with the superstitions that haunt their lives and cripple their minds.
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* Interestingly, truth claims are actually existence claims. If I say that it is true that there is a pen in my hand, what I am really saying is that I exist, a pen exists, and a specific relationship between the location of myself and that pen exists. All truth claims are existence claims.