Fundamentally, a liar and a coward are one and the same.

@bijouxbroussard Hello beautiful soul. 🙂

@Perry1968 Hi ! Always good to see you. 😊

@bijouxbroussard Ditto. One of the longest users ive known here. Always been nice. Respectful. And decent to me..thank you. X

@bijouxbroussard He only illustrated either a lack of understanding of cowardice or an acceptance of cowardly behavior.

@Justice4All So if someone lied to save a [b]life[/b] you’d dismiss it as [b]cowardice[/b] ? Really ? 🤨

@bijouxbroussard His scenario implies that being labeled a coward isn't necessarily negative when it means saving one's own life or the life of another. I comprehend that perspective. Yet, there remains a fear of consequences in such scenarios. The person refrains from truth-telling out of dread that it could result in harm to someone else. Fear is still a driving force here, making it indeed an act of cowardice. The same principle applies to someone who fabricates a lie solely to protect themselves. Regardless of whether one argues that the lie was warranted, it still stems from cowardice.

@Justice4All Not all fear is cowardice. Wanting to protect a life is not cowardice.
Courage is [b]not[/b] the absence of fear, incidentally. It’s doing what’s necessary even when you [b]are[/b] afraid of what might happen. 🥺

@bijouxbroussard Perfectly put. Everyone feels fear. Its how you deal with that fear that determines a outcome.

@bijouxbroussard It's a good discussion. The scenario does highlight the pitfalls of strict deontological absolutism. Instances arise where individuals are compelled to lie.

It is relative to your perspective. If you reverse the scenario and consider the Gestapo as the police, and a courageous citizen is sheltering a dangerous criminal, would you still believe the citizen fulfilled his duty?

@bijouxbroussard If you take things to the extremities, you can justify almost anything. Some people think it's okay to lie. I am sure that isn't your position.

The essence of the post was that individuals lie out of fear of the consequences of telling the truth. I believe that holds true even in the given scenario. While it may not always be the case, it certainly holds true most of the time.

So true, courage isn't about being devoid of fear. However, if fear leads you to compromise your ethics, you've surrendered to it. If you resort to lying to evade a feared outcome, you haven't confronted your fears directly. You can't claim, "I stood my ground and spoke the truth," when in reality, you did not.

@bijouxbroussard If I were in the scenario I would certainly lie to save the innocent Jew. However I would also acknowledge that I had to compromise on my principles in order to do what I thought was right. [b]Doing wrong to do to right [/b] sometimes necessary...

@Justice4All If you must lie to save innocent lives because they’re being threatened by evil (Jews by Nazis or Blacks by the KKK), the lie is for the greater good. And in that instance there is nothing for which to reproach oneself.