Lying with integrity

Lying is wrong because we have been conditioned to think it is wrong! why? it is because telling someone an untruth causes harm to others emotionally and leads to in some cases dire consequences, however I don't think anyone can name one family which has no secrets or lies among them! Everyone in the world tells lies, be it a little white lie which won’t harm anyone or a major lie which causes harm to whomever it touches. On the other hand truths also hurt, truths can destroy lives and families in some cases so isn’t truth they just as bad a lie? I mean it is human nature to avoid pain be it emotional or physical. We all try and minimise hurt so lying works as a barrier, not all the time, but most of the time so why is it seen as bad? Obviously if you set out to hurt someone with a lie then it is wrong but also if you use truth the same way it is also wrong yet people still maintain always tell the truth. I think this is because of morality; we have it in our heads that morality means telling the truth but in my books it is the intention of the act that breeds morals. If someone was being chased by an axe murderer and the guy went and hid in a shop and the axe murderer asked you where the man was what would you do? Lie or tell the truth?Utilitarianism is a theory based around pleasure versus pain. Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, found pain and pleasure to be the only intrinsic values in the world: "nature has put man under the governance of two sovereign masters: pleasure and pain." From this he derived the rule of utility: that the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.So basically if lying causes happiness to more people than telling the truth, then that is what we should do and most people do follow that rule, if not consciously then certainly sub-consciously. How many of us have told someone they love that they look really good on something when secretly you think ewwww?? but because we know no good will come out of telling the truth it would only cause hurt we lie., and then there is politicians...but enough said about them!!!

http://www.benbest.com/philo/lying.html