lies and information

We are bombarded by information.  Well, I am anyway.
I am told a multitude things every day.  
If I use this I shall have cleaner, smoother hands.  I'll have lots more money if I use that bank.  There is a play on called "The Birdwatchers".  Jacob Zuma is in Libya.  If I dress in this brand of clothes I will look more beautiful.  If I wear those clothes I will be trendy.  That coffee shop is the place to be seen.  This book will change my life (presumably for the better).  A multi-TB hard drive is a must-have.  Apps are essential for life and happiness.  The average rainfall for Cape Town in May is 200mm (and for those who don't live here, the total for May this year was about 20mm until today, when it decided to make up the difference in one day).   Yet another person was murdered.
Some of these are admittedly inferences from words and pictures, rather than actual bald statements, but I still receive them loud and clear.

The trouble is, a lot of the things I hear and see are lies.  Perhaps I should rather say they are incorrect.  Because when I think about truth, I realise that I mean more than merely accurate.  It may or may not be accurate that a Big Mac costs more in Cape Town than in Cairo or San Fransisco, but this is a piece of information which doesn't make it into the realm of truth/lie for me.  (This in spite of the macroeconomic implications of the Big Mac Index.  Perhaps I am an economic moron.)


Information is impersonal, but I am interested in the more personal implications of truth.  If I am looking for spiritual life, truth must be involved somewhere.  Interestingly, I find that John makes a multiplex connection between behaviour and relationship and truth and freedom.  He quotes:  "If you hold to my teaching, you will be my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."