fat? What about when someone asks you what you think of their new
shoes (particularly when you know they don’t want your honest
opinion, but simply want you to affirm what they already believe about
them – that they are wonderful!), and you don’t like them? Is it ok to lie
to them in order to spare their feelings, to meet their expectations, or
to avoid a conflict? Is it more important to be truthful by giving your
honest opinion, or to tell them what they want to hear? Finally,
consider the common greeting: “How are you doing?” In our culture
this is virtually equivalent to “hello.” When I pass by my neighbor in the
morning and they say: “How are you doing?” I do not respond with:
“Actually, I’m glad you asked. I’m doing horrible. Let me tell you what’s
going on in my life.” No, I respond by saying: “I’m doing well. How are
you doing?” In fact, I respond this way even if my life is falling apart at
the seams. And so do you! Is this lying? After all, you are presenting
something as being true which is actually not. Only a sentence that
you talk out loud like that will make people to be more motivated and
happy to start the new day.
Secondly, a white lie can even save people’s life! Seems ridiculous,
right? Actually, that is real. Consider the scenario in which your moral
obligation to protect life is pitted against your moral obligation to tell
the truth. Protecting life is the weightier moral imperative of the two,
and thus lying to protect that life would be the right thing to do.
Consider this example: In the World War II, two Nazi soldiers arrested
a group of Jews trying to escape from the region that the Nazi
colonized. However, they don’t want to give those Jews to their higher
command because the Jews will be killed immediately. As a result,
they hide the Jews in a small, uncultivated house near the hill that the
higher command cannot detect and report that they didn’t see any
