is by how often they change their story and contradict themselves. So, for instance, C.S. Lewis remarks on the credibility of Christianity vs. its critics by noting that the Christian story is consistent (with minor differences of detail) while the various critical attacks succeed and contradict one another with \u201cthe restless fertility of bewilderment\u201d. That\u2019s because lies have the fatal flaw of not conforming to, you know, reality.<\/p>\n
The test applies elsewhere too. Pro-abortion arguments are all over the map because pro-abortion arguments are lies that continually fly in the fact of reality. So when reality rears its head, old lies have to be discarded and new ones embraced. The lie \u201cIt\u2019s not killing innocent human beings, and besides it solves problems\u201d is at the heart of it. <\/p>\n
At the heart of the pro-torture argument is the lie \u201cWe don\u2019t torture, and besides it works!\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t torture\u201d is now thoroughly discredited as a lie. So now the emphasis is on \u201cbesides it works!\u201d However, that too is looking more and more like it is a claim riddled with lies. Zippy remarks:<\/p>\n
The claim in November 2007<\/a>:<\/p>\n
U.S. and Pakistani authorities captured KSM on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. KSM stayed mum for months, often answering questions with Koranic chants. Interrogators eventually waterboarded him \u2014 for just 90 seconds.KSM \u201cdidn\u2019t resist,\u201d one CIA veteran said in the August 13 issue of The New Yorker. \u201cHe sang right away. He cracked real quick.\u201d Another CIA official told ABC News: \u201cKSM lasted the longest under water-boarding, about a minute and a half, but once he broke, it never had to be used again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The claim in April 2009<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Today, Library Tower looms 73 stories above Los Angeles. But the Pacific Coast\u2019s highest skyscraper might have become a smoldering pile of steel beams had CIA interrogators not waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) 183 times in March 2003, as recently released memoranda reveal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My point is just that if we take the parameters \u201cstayed mum for months\u201d and \u201conce for 90 seconds\u201d, and measure how close that came to, you know, the truth \u2013 immediately and 183 times over a period of a month \u2013 that probably gives us a good idea how to properly calibrate the claim \u201c\u2026 might have become a smoldering pile of steel beams \u2026\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And, in fact, we find that the whole \u201cwaterboarding KSM saved LA\u201d story is a lie, given that KSM was captured *after* the plot was foiled<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In other words, a good rule of thumb is that if somebody lies once especially about something gravely evil, there\u2019s probably a very good chance they will lie twice or even three times. That the tragic progression of sin in the human soul: if you torture and murder prisoners, it could lead to cover ups and even fibbing.<\/p>\n