Saturday, September 15, 2012

Wrong Or Lie?

Let's say you made the mistake of saying, "a banana is pink", but then realised that a banana is in fact yellow. You'll say, "oops, sorry. I was wrong" to the person you said otherwise to.

But if you think about it carefully, you lied about the banana being pink. And lying is a sin. Of course, you didn't do it intentionally, but is it still telling a lie now?

According to dictionary.com,
A lie is defined as 

1. a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.

2. something intended or serving to convey a false impression; imposture

3. an inaccurate or false statement.

4. the charge or accusation of lying: He flung the lie back at his accusers.

5. to speak falsely or utter untruth knowingly, as with intent to deceive.

6. to express what is false; convey a false impression.

and 'wrong' is defined as 

An unjust, dishonest, or immoral action.

Synonyms:  incorrect - erroneous - mistaken - false - improper - bad


It seems that point 1 and point 3 don't mean the same thing. Point 1 specifies that a lie is an intentional wrong-doing while point 3 just says that a lie is an incorrect or false statement. So according to 3, wrong = lie.......?

Or course, if you did something wrong, it can't be used in this context since a 'lie' is of spoken words, not actions. So should we be saying "sorry, I lied about a banana being pink" instead of "sorry, I was wrong"? 
In this scenario, the word "lie" implies that you did it intentionally. 

Huh. I'm not getting anywhere. 

I do think that this is an important issue, because lying is one of the seven deadliest sins and all (yes I am Christian)... Well, good luck figuring out another mystery of the english language...

*listening to Carly Rae Jepsen's new album. It's a bit to fluffy and cotton-y for me though :/

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