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 lyingHe 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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