A lie is an intentionally false statement. Many people think lying is immoral. If you are caught lying, it damages your reputation and credibility, so it is not only morally wrong, but also pragmatically wrong to not tell lies.

However, everyone has lied before. Even innocent lies, such as telling young children about Santa Claus, are false statements. Is it okay to lie to someone to protect them (e.g. from the evils of the world?)? Under this train of thought, is it acceptable for the government to lie to its people? (After all, it already happens.)

Is it ever right for "normal" people to lie to "normal" people (as opposed to parents lying to their child)? What if Borat lies about buying a present for his girlfriend? Is that bad, or acceptable? Should the righteousness of lying be based on the (intended) outcome of the lie, or is all lying bad?

Where do you draw the line between an acceptable and unacceptable lie?

For me, I just think no harm or offence done + possible benefits/riddance of annoyance or hindrance -> acceptable lie.

Might just be me having messed up/biased moralities and/or being really introvert in my mental process tho.

I generally lie as little as possible.

It's my nature to be honest.

I'm not afraid to lie though, and I will if I think its in my best interest. I can't tell a big lie without giving away body language though. It's just not something I'm particularly comfortable doing.

Lying? Don't be ridiculous, Ah've never done ne'thing like dat

Honestly though, the question of "where to draw the line" has crossed my mind. For example, the extent of a prank is also something to think about...
I think that it really depends on the person you're lying to, but that the best thing to do is not to lie at all.

How much I lie to you is directly proportional to how much respect I have for you. I won't lie to you just because it benefits me, but I will if I know you're to stupid to understand the truth.

Women are the exception. I always lie to them. I love my gf, but I still cheat on her.

There are good reasons to lie, but not as many as people think.

I used to be very dishonest, but I've been cleaning that up. Oddly enough, being honest with others came easy for me. Not lying to myself was the difficult part.

That's deep bro

First step of becoming a real man as far as I'm concerned.

I strive to not lie. Since 2nd grade, I've lied about 20 times (I don't remember much prior to 2nd grade). That's not exact, but 20 +/- 3 or so. Unfortunately about 10 of those are within the past year or so. I'm not exactly sure why I've increased so much within such a short period of time.

I will lie to my children about Santa Claus someday.

I also don't count jokes as lies.

I'm generally brutally honest with people IRL, so no little white lies from me. Some people are turned off by the fact that I have the audacity to point out their flaws, but I consider it something that they should get used to.

So far's I'm concerned, the only intrinsic "immoral" or bad is "pain" (/unhappiness/discomfort/displeasure/discontent/etcetc.). So no, a lie is itself not bad; the predicted outcome of a lie can be.

Reputation and credibility, however, are things that I value. I don't exactly encourage people to hold much trust in my judgment or memory (I hate saying "I know [...]" or "I'm certain of [...]", when "I believe [...]" or "I'm reasonably confident of [...]" is more accurate, and for some reason people often seem to expect a binary "I know/have no guess as to [...]"), and apparently I'm such a weird person who lives in such a weird family that claims I make about myself or my situation are often unbelievable (or, at least, were to classmates and teachers during school).

I've decided that when big things are concerned, its not worth lying about them. I've noticed that when people get successful the media and critiques delve into their past to find any little discriminating thing that can be used against them. Since I plan on being successful, I wish to give my critiques as little ammo as possible.

I draw the line where I start lying to myself.

Or at least, I'd like to.

I'm still doing a lot of that

I feel like I'm a fairly honest person.. The only time I blatantly lie is when I'm joking around, and usually that is fairly obvious because what I say tends to be absolutely absurd.

Lying to me seems not ok, even if it's little things ... If people ever say small lies, I'd still feel hurt when I find the opposite to be true (which, of course, is an over-generalization ...).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 18 2012, 10:41 pm by FaRTy1billion.

I've found that I tend to exaggerate some things to the point where I convince myself that it is the truth.

Other then that, I believe myself to be a fairly honest person.

I'm an honest person even when I know it will damage me or other people, and it has, often. People think less of me because of my honesty. I only lie rarely. I prefer exclusion of information over lying outright. But I have no problem lying if I feel the need to. There is no moral or righteous barrier preventing me from doing so, only how much I value a particular person knowing much about a particular piece of information. Since I don't talk to people I don't value, I don't need to lie even rarely anymore.

On the other hand, I've been lied to countless times. I don't think much of it now; I just don't put myself in a position where I am dependent on other people. Thus, people's lies really can't hurt me because they can't possess any power over me. If that makes any sense, anyways. In the provided example of a boyfriend talking about gifts for a girlfriend, I can never be in that circumstance specifically because I don't involve myself in relationships.

If you don't lie, odds are you can't lie. You aren't clever enough to trick people, and if you were you'd have no problem doing it.

I lie about anything and everything for all sorts of reasons from convenience to concealment.

Lying only becomes a moral issue if lying to someone will have maleficent consequences, or you are lying to someone for maleficent end-goals (I'm a consequentialist not a deontologist lolol).