Why is Lying Bad?

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
― President George Washington

By Michael Corthell

Several fact checkers report that since taking office only 20% of what President Trump has told the American people is indeed true. America has come a long way down into the pit with the 45th president's standards of morality. He is not a good or credible person. The following tells you why Mr. Donald J. Trump is a man who is no good to the core of his being. (why would anyone support him?) And as Charles Krauthammer said, ''Not fit to be president.''

Lying is theft of freedom, the freedom by the hearer of the lies to choose rightly, and make an informed decision.

1. Lying is bad because diminishes trust between human beings and if a world leader is a liar, the people he/she serves are less secure individually and as a nation.

2. Lying is bad because it treats those who are lied to as a means to achieve the liar's purpose, rather than as a valuable human being with human rights.

3. Lying is bad because it makes it difficult for the person(s) being lied to, to make a free and informed decision about the matter being discussed.

4. Lying is bad because it's recognized, universally, as a basic moral wrong.

5. Lying is bad because it's something that Good People do not do.

(Good behavior displays the virtues found in Good People)

6. Lying is bad because it corrupts the liar.

(Telling lies becomes a habit, and if a person regularly indulges in one form of wrong-doing they may very well become more and more comfortable with wrong-doing in general.)

God gave us the power of speech so that we could make our thoughts known to each other. So, therefore, using speech to deceive people is a sin, because it's using speech to do the opposite of what God intended.

Finally, one of the most powerful moral arguments for honesty has to do with what the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called 'bad faith'. Liars deceive others, but liars also deceive themselves and deluded people can be a danger to others.

When people lie, they tend to distort their own view of reality, and the more often they lie, the more habitual and ingrained this distortion becomes. After awhile, the habit of lying removes them further and further from reality, so they see less and less clearly the choices before them, and what is at stake in those choices.

Eventually, they may find themselves unable to see what they are really doing, and how it is affecting others and themselves. The serial liar will eventually end up leading an inauthentic and irresponsible life, to put in mildly.

All of us lie, some more than others, a few make a career out of it.

Michael Corthell is a publisher, a writer and a teacher.

mikecorthell@gmail.com