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| Yes | 63% | 660 votes | Total: 1056 votes | |
| No | 37% | 396 votes |
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Add to FavoritesWhat have people been searching for since the dawn of time? The truth. Why do you always feel better after you have got something off your chest? Chances are you told the truth. Why is nature so beautiful? It celebrates truth. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture. The truth will out as they say in court.
How could people not want the truth? Well, let's take a look at this question. They are lying because they are hiding something. That is one reason. Why are they hiding something? Who knows, but they don't want anyone to find out. And how do you feel when you hide something? I know I feel I am always looking over my shoulder. Come on, everyone has done it. It is part of human nature. The unseemly part. Lying causes stress, and stress is responsible for more health problems than any other factor according to the medical pros. Don't make a habit of lying. The payoff is sickness, both mind and body.
The truth is glorious. The truth will set you free! You've heard these sayings before, and I believe it is so true. Once the truth is out there, you have no choice but to feel free. And that is a wonderful feeling. One can feel that much closer to the cosmos.
We only have so much time on this earth. We are just a millisecond in the astronomical clock. Take a look at the universe, and it will blow your mind how insignificant we are. Since we don't have that much time here, why not tell the truth? Let's make this a better world for all of us. Lying certainly doesn't help, it just clouds the picture of our lives.
If more people would live by the truth, more harmony would result. Less stress, more harmony. It is just logical.
The truth hurts sometimes, but we can get over it. Life isn't fair, but obscuring the truth will guarantee a tilted playing field. Not much can get accomplished if you can't even begin to play the game of life, let alone win.
Make it your goal to strive for the truth. Try every day. I think you will begin to see the results in a positive way. Nobody is perfect but trying and failing is better than doing nothing. It is okay to fail at delivering the truth. We are human after all. But to not try and to live in a tangle of lies will really leave you empty. Empty of this business called life.
The truth has an inherent beauty. It is part of nature. Mother nature knows what she is doing. Do you think you can compete with her? Keep lying. The result is not pretty.
Stay with the truth. Let it be your guidepost. It will be a lot easier to get to your destination. And you will be alot happier.
Learn more about this author, Anthony Megna.
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No
Is it Wiser to Always Tell the Truth?
Perhaps instead of is it wiser to always tell the truth, the question should be is it best, or even, is it kinder to always tell the truth?
Would it be wise of a suspect to tell the police where the body is buried? Obviously not. Would it be best for him to do so? From the suspect's perspective not if not telling the truth results in him being freed with no case to answer. Would it be kindest for him to come clean? Unquestionably, yes. By doing so, he would free the victim's family from years of uncertainty over the whereabouts and fate of the deceased.
Truth is not an absolute. Ask the mother in the UK who chose not to tell her 13 year old daughter that doctors believed she would die before her fourteenth birthday whether she made a wise choice to hide the truth. Would the child who lived to be seventeen have had a better time in her short life, if she had known that she was dying of cancer? Despite the burden that the mother bore in keeping such an awful secret, who can doubt that she was wiser to keep that ugly truth to herself?
More than avoiding telling the truth, the woman actively lied. On being asked directly by her daughter what the doctors had said, she made up a soothing story and changed the subject. For not telling her daughter the truth, the woman has been deeply criticised and yet how can anyone presume to judge the right or wrongness of that act of love and compassion?
To always tell the truth is unrealistic. The small lies that most people tell every day lubricate the wheels of society and keep things rolling along smoothly. Lies told for malicious purposes have a way of growing and getting entangled. They nearly always end up ensnaring the liar who told them in the first place, building between him and reality a thorny thicket of untruths and half lies that eventually catch him out.
But what does it hurt to tell a plain girl she looks lovely? Why is it necessary to hurt someone's feelings with brutal honesty if a gentle lie would make them feel great? In the face of disaster, telling the truth may cause those involved to give up all hope and cease trying to survive, but an optimistic lie may give them the strength to carry on. We are even encouraged to lie to ourselves when ill because the power of positive thinking can be a wonderful medicine.
There are times when pure, naked and hurtful truth is an absolute necessity. Sugar-coating in reality does no-one any favours, while on the other hand a few well-placed home truths can save lives, or make broken lives better. But to tell the truth always? No, that's not wise. It is selfish and unkind.
Learn more about this author, Julie Hume.
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