I have long maintained that lying, as in avoidance of truth or alteration of truth, is Natural. It is both necessary and expected.
The people who invented the old testament ghawd could only come up with one law about lying: "Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor." You could lie to anyone, including your neighbor. Good ol' ghawd just didn't want you to lie ABOUT your neighbor.
When did you tell your first lie? Undoubtedly it was to avoid a consequence you'd earned.
People who refuse to lie make us uncomfortable.
The best lies are the ones against self-interest. People love to believe them!
I once told a partial truth to a CHP officer and he let me slide after radar'ing me doing 80 in a 65. When he asked me if I knew why he'd pulled me over, my response was, "Well, since you couldn't possibly know about the body in the trunk, it has to be for going 80 mph."
He walked back to his unit, ran me for wants & warrants (of which there were none), then came back, gave me back my documents, and told me that I was free to go, but to try to keep my speed to within 10 mph of the speed limit.
elderolddog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have long maintained that lying, as in avoidance > of truth or alteration of truth, is Natural. It is > both necessary and expected.
I agree. It takes real effort and thought to NOT lie in many cases, especially when being truthful might bring some unpleasant consequences upon yourself. It took me a long time to learn that dealing with such unpleasant consequences quickly and with the truth is, in the long term, much better and less painful than weaving lies to get out of them, which might temporarily work, but usually doesn't in the long run.
> my response was, "Well, since you couldn't > possibly know about the body in the trunk, it has > to be for going 80 mph."
CHP officers get lied to all the time, so telling him a silly lie made telling my truth about speeding that much more savory to him. and I was driving a Dodge Caravan and he did look in the back window...
Lying for the lord, as easy as that. It made it ok to lie because you could ALWAYS say you were lying for the lord. So mormons lie to EVERYONE about EVERYTHING. It's part of being momron.