What if people could not lie?

Answer 1

You mean what if we could finally trust each other? Wow, what a cool concept.
If the first lie was given to Eve by Satan the Devil in the Garden of Eden, which began the whirlwind of imperfection that led us to the kind of system we live in today, all of humanity's inherited imperfection began with just one lie - that is power, and humans love it. If there were no more lies, we could finally rest easier with a sense of trust & emotional security that we've never been able to have. People who say they lie for the sake of others, aren't really trying to protect the feelings of others - they are trying to keep their own selves from feeling guilty. People have become so accustomed to the fact that sometimes it feels easier to tell a lie than to feel the emotional consequences of admitting to the truth, that they feel bad if they DON'T lie, and then try to justify it by saying they were really trying to protect someone. (There is such a thing as tact, while still being honest)
Imagine if that original lie had never been told, or even if it was never fallen for, we would have a completely different, and better, world.

Answer 2

Well, I imagine that girls could give up all those little noises that are supposed to help get it over with.

Wouldn't we have to find new bases for friendships? Do you think that many relationships could endure after a frank and open assessment of the other by each partner?

On the other hand, members of a culture where dissimulation's did not exist would accustom themselves to receiving and digesting honest confrontations with facts as they seem to others as an inevitable part of daily life.

Honesty does not necessarily preclude communicating erroneous information. I may recommend to you a painting or a piece of music as a thing of beauty, but you do not agree. I can have lied to you if I said, "You're gonna love this."

Speaking opinions that differ may be misleading. Is misleading info always a lie, or must there be a purpose to mislead?

Remember George Castanza's dictum: "It's not a lie if you believe it."

Answer 3

That's a very thought provoking question. I think of it in terms like this; If people could not lie, then they could say what they want whenever they want without thinking about the consequences of their actions. There are some people who are not tactful with their honesty and it's important to be tactful because we can hurt others. People say honesty is the best policy; that may very well be true. Problem is many people cannot handle the truth. There's a verse in the Bible I try to live by and it's Eccles. 3:7b, "There is a time to be silent and a time to speak." I believe in that verse, it's taught me to use that in my daily life to be tactful when I do speak. Our words can hurt others whether we are honest or lying, so I think what matters is being careful of our tone, actions, and in how we respond to others. I'm not saying lying is the right thing to do. I just think there are other factors to think about other than being honest with others.

In order to answer your question, I think depends on the person if we couldn't lie. Our world would definitely be different, but I don't think it would be necessarily better because some people can come off so badly with their honesty because they don't care how the come across to others.

Answer 4

Good philosphical question. Our society would be radically different. No deception. Less crime. Most people say we lie so we do not hurt others, but I believe people would get used to the answers that are truthfully told. When a wife asks, "Do I look fat in this dress?" She is hoping the husband will say no and if he says Yes she will be hurt but if she grew up in a soceity where truth was always told, this would not be a big deal to her. My 2 cents.

On the flip side, I believe a lot of our creativiness comes from us being able to lie and make up stories. It is who we are as humans.

Answer 5

Probably a lot of people would be hurt, example, a woman asks her husband, "How do I look in this dress?", and he says "Great!", but really he's thinking, "That is the ugliest dress I ever saw".
People are hurt easily sometimes, and can't accept truth. This lady might start thinking he thinks Im ugly rather than the truth that the dress is just not suited to her.
And there are also people who just flat out refuse to accept the truth, that for example "Terrorists are terrorists, and not freedom fighter's".
If no one could lie, I think there would be a lot of chaos, more than there is now. We'd really have to tell Japan (for example) that we don't really like them, etc. LOL

Answer 6

As for one person lying to another, if we couldn't lie, people would have to develop thicker skin or cut down human interaction to a minimum, making eccentric loners the norm. But we simply couldn't tolerate people telling us the ugly truth to our faces every time they felt like it. You'd probably end up punching someone in the face on a daily basis.

As for lying to yourself, that too is important. If we couldn't lie to ourselves to make ourselves happier and seem more important than we really are, we'd probably have a depression epidemic, as people could not hide from the fact that they live a life they did not choose in mostly cold and apathetic world where they are most likely to occupy a largely impotent role and die from heart disease then have their body decomposed by micro-organisms and vermin. Who wants to walking around thinking that all day?

Answer 7

You could still omit to tell the truth. That's why the oath you take when you give evidence is "The turth the WHOLE turth and nothing but the truth." Or someone could tell you something they believed was true and you'd go away telling everyone else what you thought was the truth. There would still be falsehoods but no estate agents.

:)

Answer 8

It would make everything different in ways that are unimaginable. Today you understand lie so your knowledge of what would happen is flawed. Its like clothing. If clothes were never invented how would the world be different? well it wouldnt because you wouldnt know the meaning of clothes and naked would be the norm. Today lying is the norm so to tell the truth would be the norm.

Answer 9

in some situations it is good not to lie but some times u will fall in to great trouble if u lie

Answer 10

If people could not lie then you wouldn't be asking this.