Advantages and Disadvantages of Telling a Lie

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Friedrich Nietzsche, nineteenth-century German philosopher said, “We need lies in order to live.” Really, we face some cases every day that we do not have to tell the truth. Correspondingly, in these cases we are used to tell lies. People begin to tell lies in childhood, and they gradually find it as the best way to solve problems. As most people accept that lying is beneficial and it has some advantages, they lie frequently to solve problems. In spite of advantages of telling a lie, there are several disadvantages too.
First, telling lies helps to conceal bad news and avoid negative reaction from others, including punishment. For example, children lie not to make parents angry. According to Michael Brody, M.D., a child psychiatrist in Potomac, Maryland, if a child breaks a vase, and when you ask who has broken the vase, the child can tell a lie. In addition, Dr. Brody says, "If you make an angry accusation, you'll get a lie"(Guilbert, Juliette. "Why Kids Lie -- Age by Age" Parenting. http://www.parenting.com/article/why-kids-lie-age-by-age). Also, employees tell specific lies to their bosses at work because of coming later to work. They often relate being late for work to traffic jams, bad weather conditions etc. In addition, during the Medieval Ages kings had great power, and it caused great fear of kings in society. If a servant of the king made a mistake, he had to tell a persuasive lie to avoid punishment. For example, Christopher Columbus made the king sure that he would find a way to India. Even though he knew that he got to a new continent, Columbus insisted on the idea that he found a way to islands near India. Undoubtedly, he did it because of fear (Hoxie, Frederic E. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. 1997). So, th...

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...rtake the trade of lying” (de Montaigne, Michel. Book I, chapter 9. 1580). So, a person who lies has to be clever enough, because continuing lying is difficult and risky.
Second, lying to someone leads to loss of trust to each other. Communication without truth is not useful for people. It means trust is vital in relation with people, and using deception, whether it comes to light or not, creates distance between people. A famous Azerbaijani proverb says, “A liar yelled that his house burned, but nobody believed.” So, each person has to be careful in the use of lies in order not to lose relation with close people.
All in all, telling a lie is an important part of our ethics in society. It keeps good relation among people, however, sometimes it causes failure in relation with people. So people have to consider situation, causes and consequences before telling a lie.

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