Which came first: the belief or the lie?

Belief begins only when truth is obscured. When things are clear, there is no need to believe—one simply knows. But when a lie is spoken, when certainty fractures, the ground shifts. Doubt enters, and belief rushes in to fill the gap. What was once evident must now be trusted, assumed, or taken on faith.

Belief is the shadow of deception. The more lies circulate, the more belief becomes necessary to sustain what can no longer be proven. Where clarity once existed, belief stands in its place.

That is its origin. Belief is not a higher form of knowledge, nor a noble leap of faith. It is a patch over a wound, evidence that something true was lost. Belief testifies not to truth but to absence—to the fact that a lie was told, and something had to take its place.

Without deception, belief would never have been necessary. There would have only been knowing. And so, not only did the lie come first, but it gave birth to belief as well.