Can we have morality without God? I recently discussed that question with a devout Roman Catholic, and I asserted that one could, indeed, be moral and righteous, without believing in God.
She said, “Maybe so, but whether you believe in God or not, you still need God, because where did morality come from, if not from God?”
My friend and I didn’t reach any conclusions, and we finally had to agree to disagree, but we still enjoy having discussions like that one.
We also agreed to disagree on what was the most grievous of sins. She went for the Sixth Commandment—that is, the Sixth if you’re Catholic and the Seventh if you’re a heathen—which is “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Specifically, she posited that homosexual behavior is the worst sin you can commit. But in my opinion, of all sins forbidden by the Ten Commandments, the most vile—worse than murder, in a way, because it so eloquently speaks to the perpetrator’s moral fiber—is violation of the Eighth Commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
Bearing false witness could mean simply lying about someone to his detriment, although more usually it means speaking falsely against someone in a legal matter, to damage him civilly or criminally: framing him, or falsely denying his claim.
If they can’t be excused, other sins can be at least explained by the truism that we all have faults. Decent people fall into error and do terrible things. You or I might commit a murder out of a blinding passion. We might steal out of desperation. We might commit adultery because we’re weak and all too human. These offenses don’t necessarily sum up a person’s character. Bearing false witness does. If I know that a person has tried to harm another through false witness, that’s all I need to know. That deed requires a special kind of evil: a lack of decency and empathy so profound that I can’t comprehend it.
Lately, this particular sin has become a special favorite of political activists—almost entirely on the Left. Indeed, in many cases they rely on it. This might be because certain political belief systems have become actual group sociopathy. Indeed, I have become convinced that Leftism is in effect a religion: a religion that worships falsehood. Maybe this religion has evolved because more recent generations, especially, have become so infantilized (by our culture, by the spread of moral relativism) that they have reverted to a childish amorality by which nothing is wrong—not even bearing false witness—if they can rationalize it.
I recently saw a video of an “Antifa” thug walking up to a right-wing TV reporter who was doing nothing but recording, and attacking him physically. When the cops arrested the assaulter, several of his mates cried, “He was attacked! It was self-defense!” I have seen several similar videos—all of them featuring demonstrators attacking peaceable opponents, then shouting, “They started it!” If it weren’t for phone cameras, they would get away with a lot.
A viral video recently showed a high school administrator threatening a couple of pro-life demonstrators with “I will call the police for you harassing me,” although the video showed that he was the one doing the harassing. He was clearly planning to bear false witness.
We have heard about the several male college students, in recent years, who have been thrown out of school via a Title IX proceeding, at which they had no opportunity to defend themselves or discredit an allegation—even when that allegation was clearly, demonstrably false—and the accuser faced no consequences.
We have the racial hoaxes, which we have seen on many college campuses, including here in Iowa City—which usually don’t target an individual, but concoct a fake incident to stir up trouble where there otherwise wouldn’t have been any, at considerable cost to the public. Often, people on the Left endorse these hoaxes on the grounds that “They speak to the larger truth.”
These same people will deliberately misrepresent the views of speakers, authors, and academics with whom they disagree. I have personal experience of this: of people inventing something horrible, that I never came close to saying, then claiming I said it, and using that claim to dirty my reputation and stir up threats of violence. A lie goes halfway round the world before Truth has had time to get her shoes on—and a certain political ideology, in this country, depends on lies.
For such people, inflicting pain is the apparent objective. They might rationalize their behavior by asserting that a little chicanery for the common good can be excused; that it’s about social justice; that the person they’re hurting had it coming.
But it seems to me that if you have to bear false witness against your neighbor to accomplish your objective—whatever that objective may be—it can only be a nefarious objective. You can’t destroy an innocent person’s reputation and pretend that your intent is not evil. You can’t even bear false witness against a truly bad person—however bad he is, you must not lie about him—because if you can’t win your cause by honest means, how can anyone accept the justice of that cause?
You may not do evil, hoping that good will come of it.
I don’t pretend to understand what motivates people who bear false witness; what makes them capable of such deeds—but they are possessed by evil. They should and must be shunned: placed outside the sufferance of decent society.
