The Invention of Lying (San 97a)

Is a world without lying a world without religion?

According to the writers of the recent movie "The Invention of Lying" the answer is yes. The premise of the movie is simple. Ricky Gervais's character lives in a world where no one lies. One day he discovers that he has the ability to lie and begins taking advantage of everyone's gullibility. However, things begin to change for him when his mother is on her death bed. In this world, there is no religion because to proclaim a belief in God would be "untrue" as there could be no proof to God's existence.  Seeing his mother so afraid of the nothingness of death, Gervais's character lies to her and invents a conception of God and heaven that she would find comforting.

Instantly, this idea spreads and everyone believes it. Remember, they can't suspect him of lying because the idea of lying doesn't exist. From this lie, religion is born.

I watched that movie two nights ago, and lo and behold yesterday's daf spoke about a similar issue. Here, Rav Tavus visits a town by the name of Kushta whose inhabitants would not [or could not?] tell a lie and because of this, no one in the town was punished with a premature death. Tavus married a women from this town and she bore him two children. One day he tells a neighbor a lie causing the deaths of his two children. After the townspeople hear about his actions they ask him to leave the city. In this account (unlike in "the Invention of Lying") they know what lies are and what dangers they bring and want to rid their city of them.

This is an interesting story because it seems a little out of character for what I know of Jewish law. In many instances we know lies are beneficial. Sifrei Numbers for example explains that God lied in Gen. 18 to protect Avram's feelings after Sarai questions his potency. This lie served the purpose of keeping peace in the house. Bava Metzia 23b says that a scholar can lie about having studied a tractate if he knows that answering in the affirmative will cause jealously in the person asking. Furthermore we learn in the same section that if I stay at someone's house for free, I am allowed to hide this from someone else so that they won't burden my host with requests for free housing.

So where does the line fall? Which lies are ok and which are not? Do we want a world like Kushta where any lie is grounds for banishment? Or do we want people like Ricky Gervais's character who will lie to put our mind at ease?

And most importantly, if you knew that religion was lie, would it still serve a purpose?

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