St. Augustine’s Core Ideas on Lying, Simplified

St. Augustine, a prominent early Christian theologian, wrote extensively about lying in works like On Lying (De Mendacio, c. 395 AD) and Against Lying (Contra Mendacium, c. 420 AD). His views are rooted in Christian ethics, emphasizing truth as a reflection of God’s nature.

For a layperson, his key ideas can be simplified while preserving their meaning, focusing on why lying is wrong, when it might seem tempting, and how to think about it practically. Below, I’ll paraphrase his main points in clear, everyday language, drawing directly from his arguments to ensure accuracy.

A Lie Is Intentionally Saying Something False: Augustine says a lie happens when you say something you know isn’t true, with the purpose of deceiving someone. It’s not just a mistake or a slip-up—it’s when you deliberately hide the truth to mislead. For example, if you tell your friend you’re sick to skip a party when you’re actually fine, that’s a lie because your goal is to trick them.

All Lies Are Wrong, No Matter the Reason: Augustine believes every lie is a sin because it goes against truth, which comes from God. Even if you lie to protect someone’s feelings—like saying “You look great!” when you think their outfit is awful—it’s still wrong. He argues that truth is sacred, and lying, even for a “good” cause, twists your heart and harms your relationship with God.

Imagine lying to spare someone’s feelings. Augustine would say you’re choosing a quick fix over honesty, which could lead to bigger problems later. Lies Hurt Both the Liar and the Listener: When you lie, you damage your own integrity, like chipping away at your trustworthiness. You also risk misleading others, which can hurt them by giving them false ideas about reality.

For instance, if you lie about a product’s quality to make a sale, the buyer might waste money, and you’ve eroded trust in yourself. Augustine sees this as a double harm: you sin, and you lead others astray. 

Temptations to lie are tricky but avoidable. Augustine knows people are tempted to lie to avoid trouble, gain something, or help someone. He lists eight types of lies, from worst (lies that harm faith, like denying God) to least bad (lies to help someone, like hiding a friend from danger). But he insists none are okay.

Instead of lying, he suggests finding honest ways to handle tough situations—like staying silent or redirecting the conversation. For example, if someone asks where your friend is hiding, you might say, “I can’t tell you right now,” instead of lying.

White Lies Aren’t Innocent: People often think small lies, like flattery or joking, are harmless. Augustine disagrees. He says even these twist the truth and can build bad habits. If you joke about stealing something, you might confuse someone or make light of a serious wrong. He’d urge you to stick to truth even in small talk, like saying, “I love your enthusiasm!” instead of praising something you don’t mean.

Honesty Takes Courage and Trust in God: Augustine admits telling the truth can be hard, especially if it risks conflict or loss. But he says truth aligns you with God’s will, and you should trust that honesty is better in the long run. If you’re tempted to lie to avoid a fight, he’d encourage speaking kindly but truthfully, or finding another way to show love without deceit.

Context Matters, But Truth Wins: In Against Lying, Augustine responds to debates about lying to protect others, like hiding someone from harm (a common example in his time was Christians hiding from persecution). He argues that even in these cases, lying is wrong because it betrays truth. Instead, you should rely on God to provide a way out, like silence or clever wording.

For example, if asked about a fugitive, you might say, “I don’t know where they are right now,” if it’s technically true, rather than lying outright. 

Practical Takeaways for Everyday Life

Think Before You Speak: Ask yourself if what you’re saying is true and meant to deceive. If it’s a lie, pause and consider other options, like staying quiet or being gently honest.

Small Lies Add Up: Even fibs to avoid awkwardness can make lying a habit. Try to be truthful in small things to build trust.

Truth Isn’t Always Easy: If honesty feels risky, Augustine would say to lean on faith or ethics to do the right thing, even if it’s tough.

Find Creative Solutions: When tempted to lie to help someone, look for truthful ways to achieve the same goal, like redirecting or withholding non-essential details. 

NOTE: This paraphrase, copied from an AI inquiry, draws from Augustine’s On Lying (e.g., his eight types of lies, ranked by severity) and Against Lying (e.g., his rejection of lying to protect others, as debated with Consentius). I’ve simplified his theological language (e.g., “sin against truth” becomes “harming integrity”) while keeping his core argument: all lies are wrong because they distort truth, which is divine.

Questions for Any Citizen or Civil Servant

NOTE: The following was published as an editorial in the South Bend Tribune on November 27, 2021.

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If you cannot answer these questions, then maybe you should not be voting, running for public office, or running a newspaper:

1. What is meant by “the pursuit of happiness” as expressed by our Founding Fathers?

2. What is the difference between a “right” and a “privilege?"

3. Were you ever officially questioned as to your fidelity to the Constitution and given opportunity to demonstrate how you have advocated the principles espoused therein?

4. What is the difference between being a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the world?

5. If you were to revoke your citizenship in the United States, what would change about your life and being?

6. Do you believe efforts to “defund the police” are aimed toward domestic tranquility and would enhance the same?

7. What measures would you propose to keep enemies of the Constitution from being eligible for public office?

8. What measures would you propose to enhance the common citizen’s ability to verify that his vote is accurately counted as cast?

My elected officials will be, and are, hearing these questions from me. I will be collecting and publishing their responses next spring. Can you believe I already hear crickets in my future?

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Take any three of the above questions and answer them. Or even one. If a nation is going to be strong, then its people need to understand and articulate those things which make it strong.

As it stands we have not given due dilligence to these questions and instead forged ahead under the delusion that we can govern ourselves without a foundation.

MAIN TRACKS STILL CLOSED SIXTY HOURS AFTER B&O WRECK

NOTE: What follows is a transcription of a news article from the Defiance Crescent News as it was published on April 2, 1945. This is an example of news reporting as it ought to be. The first image is from the original article. The additional images were obtained by the author of this blog either by research and download, or scan from personal photo library.
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26-CAR PILE UP BLOCKS TRAFFIC ON TWO RAILROADS

Wreckage of No. ’96,’ the B&O’s fastest freight, piled up in yards between Deatrick and Linden streets. Crane at far right is putting the locomotive back on its wheels. Main tracks of the Wabash are shown broken near center of picture. The Wabash Line and a B&O coal switch have been hooked up in the foreground to form emergency track to handle B&O traffic. Photo was taken from roof of Maher Coal and Ice Co. Plant.

MAIN TRACKS STILL CLOSED SIXTY HOURS AFTER B&O WRECK
[Defiance, Ohio] Sixty hours of work today had nearly cleared the Baltimore & Ohio and the Wabash tracks at the junction in the west yards here of debris from 26 cars smashed and piled up in a $300,000 freight train wreck, caused by a stalled automobile worth $300.

C.T. Williams, B&O division superintendent, said at noon today that the main east bound track would be back in service by 4 o’clock this afternoon but that some time will elapse before the west bound main track, requiring materials from railroad shops, is restored.

Three railroad cranes, the city’s power shovel, and an army of men--including railroad employees assembled from a wide area and prisoners of war from Camp Defiance--were employed in the continuous night-and-day clean-up struggle, starting soon after the pile up at 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

A scene unparalleled in Defiance annals and shocking even to veteran railroad men drew thousands of spectators to the yards west of Deatrick Street throughout the Easter weekend.

Crash Throws Switch

Mr. Williams, of Garrett, set the $300,000 damage estimate and explained how the wreck occurred.

He said John L. Dreves, 22, 1039 Perry Street, stalled his 1937 Plymouth two-door on the Linden street grade crossing during a rainstorm.

Eastbound freight No. 96 knocked the stalled car against a switch control lever, thus opening the switch. As a result, the fast freight of 46 cars and locomotives split onto two tracks.

Engine Nearly Hits Tower

This caused the locomotive to topple on its side, landing within two feet of the railroad telegrapher’s tower, where C.J. Shelbley of Napoleon was on duty. Twenty-six cars piled up in a great heap of splintered and twisted wreckage.

Both main lines of B. and O. and the Wabash tracks were piled with rubble. Trackage was torn up for some distance between Linden and Deatrick streets. Linden is the second street west of Deatrick, and crosses the Baltimore and Ohio tracks near the Defiance Automatic Screw Co.

At 1:20 p.m. Saturday—10 minutes less than 12 hours after the wreck—the first train was able to get through on a temporary track laid around the wreckage. This was west bound passenger train No. 15.

All Escape Injury

This temporary line, which was formed by relaying a part of the Wabash rails, ran around the wreckage to south of the main B&O lines. It was used to keep passenger and freight trains moving while wreck crews from Garrett, Willard, and Lima removed wreckage Saturday and Sunday.

Before the temporary line was laid, heavy wartime traffic w as detoured to other railroads.

Dreves, who had left his stalled car, and the freight train crew, escaped injury. Train crewmen included Engineer C.O. Recktanwald, Fireman J.R. Russell and conductor Guy Thompson, all of Garrett, and Brakeman Robert Leiter, Kendallville, Ind.

Recktanwald, Russell, and Leiter rode the careening locomotive until it toppled and then scrambled to safety as steam valves let loose.

Eight Carloads of Meat

All 26 freight cars which piled up were loaded mostly with food. Superintendent Williams said there were eight carloads of meat, five of beer, two of whiskey, five of miscellaneous freight, two of shelled corn, and one each of apples, lettuce and carrots.

Cars Piled High

The cars piled up directly behind the upset locomotive, that had been in service only six MONTHS. So compact was some of the wreckage that it was difficult to pick out one car from another. Some piled one upon the other until the highest reached telegraph wires strung on poles along the right of way.

Rails Pierce Cars

The terrific impact ripped up rails, one of which pierced all the way through two cars. One box car smashed through the [continued from Page One] middle of a refrigerator car which had turned cross wise.

Dreves gave a statement to state highway patrolmen. He said he was driving his car north on Linden street, the first crossing beyond Deatrick street, during the rainstorm. He said the wheels of his machine slipped off the narrow crossing and dropped between the rails where the car stalled.

Unable to get the car off the tracks, Dreves said he went to the tower to telephone a wrecker and later to the Defiance Automatic Screw Co. plant. Before a wrecker could be obtained, the train had struck the car and piled up.

Richard Feeney, driving Ray’s auto wrecker in response to a call, said he was in Perry street about three blocks from the scene when he heard the noise of the wreck. He got to the toppled locomotive in time to see Engineer Recktanwald, Fireman Russell and Brakeman Leiter crawl from the cab. Conductor Thompson was coming up the tracks from the caboose.

The lever of the switch, just east of the Linden street crossing, was broken off. The automobile, valued at a little more than $300, was demolished.

Salvage Some of Cargo

As soon as traffic was restored over the emergency track Saturday, the wreck crews started pulling the debris apart, getting some of the less-damaged cars back on their wheel trucks and out of the way. One crane worked from the east and two from the west.

Claim agents of the railroad arranged for salvage of as much of the food as possible. Prisoners of War from Camp Defiance came on the job after midnight Sunday and carried canned milk and beer in large metal drums to the Maher Coal and Ice Co. yards, where they were picked up by trucks.

After more of the debris had been pulled away, the prisoners retuned Sunday afternoon to carry large quantities of lettuce, carrots, and other produce to be loaded into trucks.

City Equipment Used

Amos Marihugh, operating the Defiance power shovel, made available for the emergency, won admiration from railroad men and the host of spectators for his fast and efficient work. Splintered sections of cars, and large quantities of meat, canned milk, and other cargo damaged beyond salvage were picked up by Marihugh’s shovel and dropped into waiting trucks.

Railroad men Sunday made a picturesque procession as they carried huge piles of hog fat yet to be rendered, large quantities of liver, summer sausage, dried beef, other processed meats, across the tracks to waiting trucks. Throughout the crowd, there was audible anguish, and people shy on red points saw great quantities of meat torn and mashed and sometimes ground into cinders.

Railroad police came from Garrett, Deshler and Willard, with four other railroad officers being sent in from Chicago later. City police and state patrolmen handled traffic in the area and also helped keep the tracks clear of spectators.

Streets for blocks around packed with hundreds of automobiles and thousands of spectators viewed the wreckage.

Supt. Williams thanked the city of Defiance for putting the service department power shovel on the job to help remove wreckage. “We greatly appreciate the city’s co-operation,” he said.

E.R. Massie of Chicago and C.F. Parks of Akron, both of the B. and O. claims department, today continued salvage of the merchandise. Don Ice and Gerald Martin were taking car of the reshipping of the shelled corn through General Mills here.

The Defiance Commission Co. purchased the carloads of carrots and head lettuce. The Goldenetz Grocery purchased some of the canned milk. Mr. Parks said no doubt much of the meat would spoil but said efforts were still underway to reship what could be salvaged.

The beer, in bottles and kegs, and the whiskey created a problem. Contacts were being made to procure permission to move it, claims agents said. Much of the bottled beer was shattered in the crash and much more was being destroyed today as the big cranes scooped it out of the way.

A source of entertainment for the spectators was the look of astonishment on the faces of all travelers at south windows of the slow-moving passenger trains that traversed the temporary bypass. They showed bewilderment at seeing such a big crowd on hand to watch the train go through. And when spectators violently waved for them to look the other way at the wreckage, most of the passengers would mistake the gestures for a salute, and wave back just as violently.

Occasionally someone on the other side of the car apparently would exclaim about the wreckage, and then all faces would disappear from the south windows as the travelers jumped across the aisle for a fleeting glimpse of the pile-up.

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