Our teaching pastor is also a lawyer so "Thou shalt not bear false witness" was interesting. Apparently in the judicial system of the time, if you accused someone and couldn't prove it to the satisfaction of the judges, they let him go and applied the punishment for his crime to you.
Taking the general principle of "don't lie", he cited a study done at University of Virginia in which people reported their conversations. If I recall the numbers correctly, the study found that people on average tell a significant lie in 30% of all one-on-one interactions, and 50% of conversations which last 10 minutes or longer. Men tend to lie to make themselves look better; women lie to make other people feel better; but they both prevaricate at about the same rate. The type of conversation which had the highest rate? College students talking to their mothers.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
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I hate lying. I hate being put in a situation where it seems like the only course. I hate lying to customers or clients. I hate lying generally. I hate having to lie to protect someone's feelings.
I try to do it as rarely as I can and only when I evaluate all the options and honesty just has too many unpleasant consequences.
It has to be a fairly sizable consequence though, because I'm willing to endure a lot in pursuit of honesty.
I find a lot of people I encounter lie far more often than I would do so and often I can tell they are lying but can't figure out why, given the issue at hand is rarely that significant.
You can be honest without being blunt. Sometimes being blunt is also a good idea.
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