Imagine that our government discovers that aliens will attack in exactly two weeks and they will probably kill us all. Our leaders decide not to tell us because of the panic that it might cause. Have they made the right choice?

I say, “Hell no!”

Knowledge is very important to me. Therefore, it follows that truth is very important to me. I would much rather know and be scared shitless than be left ignorant. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that I am now an atheist instead of still an Amish man.

In movies we see characters administering to a dying family member. They keep telling the dying person that ‘you’re gonna be fine’ and ‘everything will be alright’.

Bullshit!

If I’m dying, the last thing I want is to have someone lie to me about it. Death is such a defining point in life ( haha ) that to be lied to about it would be the last straw.

The point that I’m trying to get to is that I live for the truth. I live for the knowledge that follows. I even use the idea of ‘truth’ as a defense for turning to atheism – such is my ideological adoration of truth.

But then there’s the other side of the medallion… If a religious friend of mine asks me about my religious views, I evade the question. I can usually get around it without making any outright lies, but I never tell them the truth because I know the friendship would vanish like a poof and all my other friendships would poof away one after the other. I don’t want that to happen because I enjoy the company of my friends despite their woefully dogmatic beliefs.

I make excuses to myself and rationalize away with thoughts like, lying is the practical course of action, or, we’ll all be happier if I just lie about it. My excuses make sense to me and I’m not about to tell my friends what I really believe in.

So there you have it. I’m a hypocrite!

On the one cheek I adore the ideology of truth but on the other cheek, my actions are a bit more pragmatic. And that’s it. I’m not posting this to show you my brilliant solution because I simply don’t have one. This hypocrisy, this contradiction, is just another one of those things chipping away at my psyche…