Lying and certain situations

[agnosticatheist]

Christians, you are instructed in the Old and New Testaments not to lie, not to be deceitful, etc (By the Old Testament, I am referring primarily to the command not to lie in the Ten Commandments; if you are a Christian who thinks the Ten Commandments don't apply to you, then you are just instructed not to lie, not to be deceitful, etc in the New Testament). Also, when I used to be a Christian, there was this idea I encountered, and I think it was either mainly or exclusively at the church I used to attend, that the Christian walk is supposed to extend to every part of your life. Maybe this is not a common idea in Christianity; maybe most strains of Christianity believe that the instructions of the Bible only apply to certain areas of their lives, or only apply when it is convenient for them.

Now, that being said, what if you are in one of the following situations:

A: You could either lie to save one or more people, or not lie and they die; what would you do? Let me add a slight change up to that question: What if at least one of the people you could save by lying is a child? Would you lie and save them, or not lie and thus let them die?

B: You are a law enforcement worker and you have the legal authority to lie; you are involved in an effort to catch a serial killer and bring them to justice. Do you lie while attempting to trick interviewees, who may be hiding important information, into revealing the aforementioned important information, or do you not lie and thus make your investigation more difficult than it needs to be, and thus increase the odds that the killer will remain free and kill innocent people?

C: You are a CIA field officer; you work in a foreign country, and have a network of citizens in the country who are working with you. You get questioned about your relationship to them by someone from the foreign country's government; you could either lie and keep those people from being exposed, and possibly tortured and killed (their familes could also be tortured and killed), or you could not lie and those people get exposed, and possibly tortured and killed (their families could also get tortured and killed). What do you do?

[imhereforyou]

Christians, you are instructed in the Old and New Testaments not to lie, not to be deceitful, etc (By the Old Testament, I am referring primarily to the command not to lie in the Ten Commandments; if you are a Christian who thinks the Ten Commandments don't apply to you, then you are just instructed not to lie, not to be deceitful, etc in the New Testament). Also, when I used to be a Christian, there was this idea I encountered, and I think it was either mainly or exclusively at the church I used to attend, that the Christian walk is supposed to extend to every part of your life. Maybe this is not a common idea in Christianity; maybe most strains of Christianity believe that the instructions of the Bible only apply to certain areas of their lives, or only apply when it is convenient for them.

Now, that being said, what if you are in one of the following situations:

A: You could either lie to save one or more people, or not lie and they die; what would you do? Let me add a slight change up to that question: What if at least one of the people you could save by lying is a child? Would you lie and save them, or not lie and thus let them die?

B: You are a law enforcement worker and you have the legal authority to lie; you are involved in an effort to catch a serial killer and bring them to justice. Do you lie while attempting to trick interviewees, who may be hiding important information, into revealing the aforementioned important information, or do you not lie and thus make your investigation more difficult than it needs to be, and thus increase the odds that the killer will remain free and kill innocent people?

C: You are a CIA field officer; you work in a foreign country, and have a network of citizens in the country who are working with you. You get questioned about your relationship to them by someone from the foreign country's government; you could either lie and keep those people from being exposed, and possibly tortured and killed (their familes could also be tortured and killed), or you could not lie and those people get exposed, and possibly tortured and killed (their families could also get tortured and killed). What do you do?

As a 'good Christian', you shouldn't lie about anything because God will provide an out for the situation that doesn't involve you lying - that's what a Christian should say (remember the guys in the furnace story?).
In truth, most would lie and later ask for forgiveness ( one of many benefits of believing in something that can't be proven and is highly individualized and subjective).
Fact is, I suspect most Christians lie daily to various degrees because it's easy to do so when you can 'repent'.

[bjs]

[Replying to post 11 by imhereforyou]


Moderator Comment

Do not accuse millions of people you have never met of lying daily.

Please review the Rules.


______________

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[imhereforyou]

[Replying to post 12 by bjs]

Apologies if support wasn't provided initially.
Some links to support that people lie:
https://www.inc.com/sylvia-lafair/fibs- ... e-lie.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/maga ... s-science/ - "Learning to lie is a natural stage in child development."

https://psychcentral.com/blog/does-everyone-lie/ - "A recent paper published in Human Communication Research found that many people are honest most of the time, that many are honest about their lying, and that some lie a lot."

https://gizmodo.com/5913730/scientific- ... ryone-lies - "How can we stop people from lying? In fact, that's exactly what Ariely is working on now."

http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2015/12/29/ ... s-even-you


There is a lot more to support my claim than a being living in the sky creating everything that is, yet that's OK to pontificate about; seems almost hypocritical.