Contradictions / Lies / Errors

<p>"...it should be considered, that contradictions, and consequently impossibilities are not comprehended in the definition of things, but are diametrically the reverse of them, as may be seen in the definition of the word things, to wit: "whatever is." There is no contradiction in nature or truth, which comprehends or contains all things, therefore the maxim is just, "That with God all things are possible," viz: all things in nature are possible with God; but contradictions are falsehoods which have no positive existence, but are the negatives to things, or to nature, which comprehends, "Whatever is;" so that contradictions are opposed to nature and truth, and are no THINGS, but the chimeras of weak, unintelligent minds who make false application of things to persons, or ascribe such powers, qualities, dispositions and aptitudes to things as nature never invested them with; such are our deluded notions of the immediate operations of the holy spirit, or of any mere spirit, on our minds independent of the intervention of some adequate, natural or intermediate cause. To make a triangle four square, or to make a variety of mountains contiguously situated, without vallies, or to give existence to a thing and not to give existence to it at the same time, or to reveal anything to us incompatible with our capacity of receiving the perception of it, pertains to those negatives to nature and truth, and are not things revealed, nor have they any positive existence as has been before argued; for they are inconsistent with themselves, and the relations and effects which they are supposed to have upon and with each other. It derogates nothing from the power and absolute perfection of God that he cannot make both parts of a contradiction to be true."

Ethan Allen, Reason, the Only Oracle of Man: Or, A Compenduous System of Natural Religion, pg. 34-35, 1854</p>