Lying is Justified ...

[two-timer]

Ignore this. Proceed to the poll.

 

[meebs]

Lying is Justified ... Only if it saves a life?

 

[Westvleteren]

...when telling the truth would cause someone pain greater than your personal burden of guilt for lying.

 

[Antoninus Verus]

...when telling the truth would cause someone pain greater than your personal burden of guilt for lying.

Ya dont tell your wife she looks like a watermellon in her new dress. You sit there, say "Honey you look GORGEOUS" and shut up

 

[Talmidah]

Is there no difference between lying and bearing false witness?

 

[two-timer]

Is there no difference between lying and bearing false witness?

Beats me. For the sake of the poll, assume it's the same. Then, state your case.

 

[ChristianCenturion]

My option isn't available.
The 'option below' was deleted.
- no vote.

 

[sanaa]

lying can be justified in some cases -
like if a soldier is captured by the enemy and tortured for information , he lies and gives the wrong information to save his country from an attack .

mother and child meet with an accident , child dies . mother's condition is critical but she is conscious . till the time she gets better u lie to her that her child is ok to prevent her from going into shock and to prevent her condition from detoriating and putting her at risk .

at the time of throwing suprise parties?

when saying the truth will cause unneccessary pain to the other person and the matter is a very small thing

if you know your father is an alcoholic and abusive so when he comes back u lie and saying no , little brother did not accidently break the vase !

 

[ChristianCenturion]

lying can be justified in some cases -
like if a soldier is captured by the enemy and tortured for information , he lies and gives the wrong information to save his country from an attack .

Not to pick on your post, but I have interest in this one...
I was an active soldier - I could also take the punishment and not say anything but name, rank and serial number if I chose.

That's all - I'll leave your view alone, just wanted to give the soldier some honor.

 

[findthejake]

I would like to point out some potential biblical leaders that were seemingly blessed for lying.

Like Jonathan (King Sauls son) and whats-her-face that hid the two israelite scouts in jericho.

There are a few others I can't think of right now...

 

[tocis]

My personal rule of thumb (exceptions may exist but don't currently occur to me):

Lying is justified only when telling the truth right now would do more harm than good. For example, a family's car gets hit by a truck, the severely injured mother, while being treated in the emergency room, asks again and again "what about my husband? what about my children?". If her blood pressure is already close to critical levels, telling her the cruel truth (that she is the sole survivor) at this very moment would only do more harm... and may actually kill her.
However, even in a case like this one, one should be aware that no lie lives forever. You can buy some time with a lie, if necessary, but as soon as the truth can be told without devastating effects, you should do so... for if you don't, some time the truth will come out anyway, and then it will hurt double (the truth itself will be painful, plus there will be additional pain from having been lied to).

 

[sanaa]

Not to pick on your post, but I have interest in this one...
I was an active soldier - I could also take the punishment and not say anything but name, rank and serial number if I chose.

That's all - I'll leave your view alone, just wanted to give the soldier some honor.

well ur being tortured . u have to say something ( some kind of information) , u might not but if another soldier gives the wrong information , i think its justified . i mean information on not ur personal details but about where ur country's secret bases are or something like that . also to be realistic , they are not going to let u die unless u say something

 

[theotherguy]

Lying never works in the long run. They aren't going to leave you alone until they have the truth, lying just prolongs the suffering. Lying inferes that you know something, whereas staying quiet inferes that you don't know anything. One is going to prolong the pain, the others shorten it. In the end the truth will come out anyway. Do you think your hard enough to keep up a lie for months on end in constant pain?

 

[ChristianCenturion]

well ur being tortured . u have to say something ( some kind of information) , u might not but if another soldier gives the wrong information , i think its justified . i mean information on not ur personal details but about where ur country's secret bases are or something like that . also to be realistic , they are not going to let u die unless u say something

I can see where people may think this way, but it probably is because they haven't been trained.
Say you are captured and tortured... say that they want to know the location of your men...
You say that they are 20 miles SSW, all the while you know that they are 30 miles SE from your location. You think that your lie has done good until...
A) You find out that there was another group of soldiers at the location you said and they got ambushed and died.
B) There were innocent civilians that were at that location, but the enemy shot first and asked questions later.
C) The enemy used a video tape of you appearing to cooperate to the public or other prisoners that have no idea that you were lying.
D) Etc.

As you can see, the risks and the penalties for the 'justified' lie in that scenario is incorrect. I don't hold this against you, I am simply showing the reasoning behind the military training - that is why I spoke up on the soldier.

 

[Blackmarch]

At no time is it justified.

However if a man can keep a life of never lying, he would be a great man.

 

[sanaa]

I can see where people may think this way, but it probably is because they haven't been trained.
Say you are captured and tortured... say that they want to know the location of your men...
You say that they are 20 miles SSW, all the while you know that they are 30 miles SE from your location. You think that your lie has done good until...
A) You find out that there was another group of soldiers at the location you said and they got ambushed and died.
why would u make a mistake like that . wont you know where ALL the bases are

B) There were innocent civilians that were at that location, but the enemy shot first and asked questions later.

surely they can differentiate between american soldiers and iraqis
C) The enemy used a video tape of you appearing to cooperate to the public or other prisoners that have no idea that you were lying.

ur fellow army people will know ur lying
D) Etc.

As you can see, the risks and the penalties for the 'justified' lie in that scenario is incorrect.

it was still better than saying the truth . if u said the exact truthful location there would certainly be an attack , here things may or may not turn out for the good
I don't hold this against you, I am simply showing the reasoning behind the military training - that is why I spoke up on the soldier.

thank u . u ofcourse as a trained soldier will know better . this was entirely my view , u see if u lie ur country will get that extra time to maybe try save u