Friday, July 6, 2012

The Science of Lying [Video]


This was an interesting video. But does have it's problems.




Video Description:
Hank gets into the dirty details behind our lying ways - how such behavior evolved, how pathological liars are different from the rest of us, and how scientists are getting better at spotting lies in many situations.

The Science of Lying [Video]


I  was disappointed with the video because it gave a reason for why humanity knows it is immoral to make lying a day-to-day practice \or a way of life, but does not give  any evolutionary explanation for how and why humanity became presupposed to be liars. The video goes as far admitting that we all lie even from an early age but stops short of calling it what it is. Sin. Lying is evil. Plain and simple.  No one likes being lied to or lied on. Why,  if it is so natural and a good thing? It's not.  So my question is: How do we free ourselves with it? Sometimes when the truth is inconvenient, how do you avoid the temptation to lie? How do you break free? We all know what it's like to fall for it and lie almost without even thinking about it. Why would any one of us think that we won't have to pay for that? We know we have told lies. We know we have hurt other people. So wshat what are you going to do about it?

The truly unfortunately thing is that when the video points out how religion may have helped people realize that lying was bad for society, it references medieval Europe as if the Bible, and many other things had not already been in place - just to take a jab at Christianity.

12 comments:

  1. So, again, you'd not lie to save someones life, assuming it was the only option? And if you did, would it have been a sin and/or evil to have done so.

    Please, we don't need to hear how awesome you are and that there would never be a situation where your badassery would not prevail. This is a hypothetical, and in this hypothetical, lying is the only option that will result in the people you are hiding not being killed.

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  2. We've been through this. Lying is a sin. It is evil and against God. We are evil sinners. God is calling for more from us. No hypothetical situation changes that. Most of the time people lie to protect themselves not to protect or help others. The Hypothetical you keep bring up will almost never happen to you. You are good at red herrings. The best possible thing is to just trust and obey God in all situations. You want to know how God would judge you in such a situation, ask God.

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  3. Yes or no, lying to save someone is a sin?

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  4. It really wasn't. Just to clarify, you said "Lying is a sin. It is evil and against God" and then hemmed and hawed for another 70 some words.

    So, by lying to save countless children from the Nazi's, y Gertrude Wijsmuller-Meijer committed "evil against god"?

    Just say yes or no.

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  5. and then hemmed and hawed for another 70 some words.

    It's okay to admit when something is over your head. You'd be respected more.


    So, by lying to save countless children from the Nazi's, y Gertrude Wijsmuller-Meijer committed "evil against god"?

    And just what evidence do you have that Gertrude Wijsmuller-Meijer told lies? What circumstances? To whom did she allegedly lie? Documentation please.

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  6. And just what evidence do you have that Gertrude Wijsmuller-Meijer told lies? What circumstances? To whom did she allegedly lie? Documentation please.

    OK, hypothetically, by lying to save countless children from the [Random Oppressors], [Random Person who told lies to hide the children who were going to be killed by the Random Oppressors] would have committed "evil against god"?

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  7. I can only conclude you are afraid to face this sort hypothetical, or you get some sort of enjoyment out of the (misguided) idea that you are stringing me along.

    I favor the former, but you should know, the latter doesn't bother me in the least.

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  8. Of course you don't mind being strung along, you are stupid, remember? So I guess this means that you have no documentation that Gertrude Wijsmuller-Meijer told lies to save children. Let's abandon hypothetical hogwash and use a real example and you can show why you think there really is a real 20th or 21st century example(s) showing how lies really saved a life(lives) and with documentation. I'd even accept a bibliography or even a google results page.

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  9. Let's abandon hypothetical hogwash...

    No. Firstly, this is a 20th century example, but I wasn't aware that objective morality changed over time.

    If you want to defend objective morality, you have to be able to defend hypotheticals.

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  10. So, hypothetically, by lying to save countless children from the [Random Oppressors], [Random Person who told lies to hide the children who were going to be killed by the Random Oppressors] would have committed "evil against god"?

    A simple yes or no, or are you are afraid to face this sort hypothetical?

    Also yes or no will be fine.

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  11. Listen, Emmanuel Kant was a lot smarter than you. If you don't like this sort of hypothetical, perhaps you can start with him to try to defend it rather than just avoiding the question.

    But still, yes or no...

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