The Problem of Fake News and The Battle for Truth Photo: Adobe Stock
Living In A Post-Truth World
The twenty-first century will go down in history as a world characterised by the greatest use of disinformation and lies on a global scale because of the internet and social media. Never before in the history of mankind has it been possible to spread lies so fast or so internationally.
Satan's Strategy of Disinformation
Satan's strategy has not changed since he succeeded in persuading Adam and Eve to disobey God's instructions not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, or they would certainly die.
Satan simply cast doubt on God's love and God's words by asking the question:
"Did God say?"
He has been asking this question by casting doubt on God's love and God's Word - The Bible - ever since.
Satan as The Father of Lies
In John 8:44-47 Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and religious leaders, who claimed to be God's children because they were decended from Abraham, for not believing what he was saying about himself.
"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
The Liar's Playbook
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, emphasised the importance of using lies to control people.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it (long enough), people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained for only such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to suppress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus, by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."