Half Truth Definition: Part truth and part lie; sugar-coated poison. Often more effective than the Big Lie.
Catch-phrase: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Examples: Satan using Scripture to tempt Christ Spin doctoring Accusers of Jesus claiming that he threatened to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days (but He was speaking of the temple of his body) Slanted docudramas like Birth of a Nation and Inherit the Wind Quoting out of context: a well-known pastor said, quote: “Every time I want to, I beat my wife. Every time I want to, I get stoned drunk.” The next statement, if omitted, makes all the difference: “I never want to.” Phillip Johnson said, “We must first demonize our enemies before we can rationalize killing them.” (Reason in the Balance, p. 184; he was describing dogmatists, not his own beliefs, which were quite the opposite.) TV editing tricks, like interviews that edit in, after the fact, a different question than the one the guest answered Exaggerating the bad news (tax hike, gas prices) then later revising the estimate downward, so that the peasants are relieved and you look like a savior. Radical deconstruction and revisionist history: textbooks that devote seven pages to Madonna and one sentence to George Washington My political opponent says he supports civil rights, but he voted against the Civil Rights Bill (because it was an omnibus bill that had more bad than good, or because he supported a better bill later). A woman should have control over her own body (but her baby has its own body, brain, heartbeat, blood type, sex, and genes – half donated by the father) In evolutionary rhetoric, confusing micro-evolution (which is observable) with macro-evolution (which is not). Fossil horse series: they didn’t tell you some were out of order and lived on different continents. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria: they didn’t tell you it involves a loss of information and function. The Second Law of Thermodynamics only applies to isolated systems, so it’s not relevant to evolution, because the earth is an open system. (It was derived using theoretical isolated systems, but it applies to all systems, and can only be overcome locally and temporarily in open systems when stringent conditions are met. Furthermore, the universe, in which evolution is alleged to have occurred, isan isolated system.) Sort out the truths or lies in this statement by Ben Bova (1980): “Creationists... presure school boards to give ‘equal time’ with evolution in science classes. As a result, in many biology texts the origin of the human species is illustrated by Michelangelo’s Adam from the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. It’s a fine painting, and Genesis is an inspired bit of writing. But it isn’t biology.”