There is a science fiction (or future history) book by James L Halperin called The Truth Machine¹ which is about the invention of a machine which can detect lies with 100% certainty and is then adopted by the courts as the final arbiter of legal guilt. The machine proves reliable, is miniaturised, and becomes so cheap and universal that everyone wears one on their wrist. Everyone is able to know instantly the truth (or otherwise) of everything anyone says.

Understandably, in the book, The Truth Machine transforms society. Instant and certain detection of all lies makes everyone always truthful - at least everyone over the age of six. To ensure compliance, it is made a condition of any public contract (e.g. getting a driver's licence or a passport) that a confession is made in front of The Truth Machine of all your crimes - although early confession brings minimal punishment.

Thinking about the consequential changes in society, one of James Halperin's characters concludes, "Being forced to confront the truth about ourselves has improved our lives in countless measurable ways." But not everyone in the book liked being confronted with the truth about themselves - nor with the truth about what others thought of them. - There were many suicides as people came to terms with the truths of their own past and the prospects for a new future.

Of course, The Truth Machine has always been part of Christian theology - at least in the sense that the all-knowing God knows instantly everything we do. And (without the saving grace offered by Jesus) the punishment will be equally certain. Although such punishment will not happen until after the day of judgement when we stand before God's throne in heaven.

But that Christian teaching has hardly had the same general impact on our society that James Halperin attributes to The Truth Machine in his book. Perhaps because not enough people really believe in God as The Truth Machine, perhaps because the here-after hardly has as much perceived significance for our lives as the here-and-now.

Nevertheless, when large numbers of people have taken God seriously, real life society has also been transformed in remarkable ways. During the Welsh revival at the beginning of the 1900s, everyday life in the villages changed very much for the better as people began to live during the week the way the preacher taught in the chapel Sunday by Sunday. The police felt redundant!

Of course, if The Truth Machine had been available to Pontius Pilate, he would not have asked cynically, "What is truth?"² before condemning Jesus to death. He would have known that Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life,"³ was both telling the truth and exactly what he said.