Success...It's All in the Letter P By now we are familiar with Nigel Lythgoe, the British television director and producer, who created such smash hits as Ameri...

Truth or Lies...Which One Do You Choose?

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Original Publication Date:
October 2008

Since when has not telling the truth gotten so easy? Maybe we don't want to hear the real deal. Maybe we've dummied it down or tampered with it to the point that we don't recognize it anymore. We've gotten good at accepting half-truths, sort of—truths, somewhat truths, and shaded truths. We shave a little bit here, embellish a little bit there, we add, subtract, twist and spin, and before you know it the truth has no semblance whatsoever from where we began. We justify, rationalize, pass the buck, and place the blame, anything to color the truth in the hue that best fits the picture. We've gotten good at lies, too. We've gotten good at flat out, made up, bold face lies.

When was the last time you told a lie? Come on, be honest. I try to practice honesty on a large scale and on issues that have real relevance, but I'm not perfect. For me, it was just the other day. Oh, it wasn't a big lie or something that affected the outcome of an election, someone's freedom, or hurt anyone in any meaningful way. The lie was one of those insignificant little white ones that was told more for my benefit and for convenience sake. It was slanted in a way as to withhold information when nosey people require more than they have a right to know. Perhaps you've done something similar. Say someone invites you to dinner and you make an excuse not to go—an excuse that isn't the truth, yet on paper it qualifies as a lie. You don't want to hurt their feelings so you tell them something that gets you off the hook and spares them at the same time. That is the kind of lie to which I refer here. So I justify my little lie, still a lie in the purest sense, nonetheless. In the grand scheme those little lies don't hurt, but not knowing where to draw the line can. Problem is, the further away you get from the truth the easier it is to lose all sense of truthfulness.

Mankind has had a struggle with truth since the beginning of time. Lying was important enough to be included as a core tenet of the world's religions. All religious teachings are dead against lying. For example, it shows up in the 10 Commandments: "Thou shalt not bear false witness..."—false witness refers to misrepresenting the truth in relations with others and also forbids lying. In Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path it refers to: Right Speech—avoid unkind words and lying, and Right Action—do not lie. Islam, too, views lying as a serious vice. In the Quran it states: "And do not say that of which you have no knowledge." Included in the Moral and Ethical Ideals of Hindus are: Ahimsã (non-injury) —Don't harm others by word, deed or thought and Satya (truthfulness) — Refrain from lying and betraying promises. Confucianism says, "I do not see what use a man can be put to whose word cannot be trusted..." The teachings of Sikhism state: "Dishonesty in business or uttering of lies causes inner sorrow"

The fact that man has been given the innate ability to distinguish right from wrong throughout history and choose between the two, sets a universal standard of ethics that applies to all of us.

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