Gradations of Deceptions: Understanding the Role Divine Deception Plays in Honouring Humanity and Centering Divinity

Workshop Presentation
Kelston Cort  

Deception, seen through the lens of morality and religiosity, has often been ascribed an unwarranted, tenuous, and skewed description to explain the complex nature of human interaction, particularly in the world of the divine. In what follows from this reductionist standpoint, is the view that deception is morally reprehensible and spiritually vacuous. Because it produces a state of ignorance, in which the deceiving subject hinders deliberately an element of the truth from being known. In withholding or distorting the whole truth, the deceived subject is placed in a defenseless position to be exploited, as the deceiving subject surreptitiously strives to elicit a favorable outcome that is to their own liking or advantage. While this form of deception could compromise the absolute value of humanity, the practice of ‘divine deception’ can securely safeguard not only humanity but one’s faithfulness in the world of divinity. Using the Kierkegaardian philosophical tradition, I argue that divine deception, unlike self-deception and universal deception, can fulfill the highest moral good, distinguishing truth from errors, means from ends, persons from things and price from dignity. Therefore, in subscribing to the teachings and principles of the religious world, the practice of divine deception becomes a necessary religious precept that should be embraced for its inherent uncompromising value in honoring humanity, as well as centering divinity in the lives of individuals.