{"id":65501,"date":"2026-03-13T15:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?post_type=sermon-illustrations&#038;p=65501"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:08:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:08:25","slug":"do-human-beings-want-to-be-deceived","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/do-human-beings-want-to-be-deceived\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Human Beings Want to be Deceived?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In his book \u201cThe Future of Truth,\u201d Werner Herzog writes about the pursuit of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo one knows what it is, truth. Least of all the author. But philosophers don\u2019t know either, nor mathematicians, not even the Pope in Rome knows what it is, though he has his faith and the certainty of salvation to draw on\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is there such a thing in human nature as readiness to accept lies?\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026A willingness to deceive ourselves seems to be an essential part of our makeup. ..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Show business lives entirely from our willingness to suspend our disbelief. We buy tickets for a magical performance, where we are quite willingly misled. Wrestling bouts are another instance. They draw huge audiences, even though everyone knows they \u2018re not real fights, but highly choreographed spectacles. Regardless, the spectators are passionately engaged in these fights, as though they were perfectly real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3743,3745,3957,4199,4913],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-65501","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-deceit","tax_ctp_tags-deception","tax_ctp_tags-falsehood","tax_ctp_tags-hypocrisy","tax_ctp_tags-self-deception"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Do Human Beings Want to be Deceived? - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/do-human-beings-want-to-be-deceived\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do Human Beings Want to be Deceived? - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book \u201cThe Future of Truth,\u201d Werner Herzog writes about the pursuit of truth. \u201cNo one knows what it is, truth. 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