It used to be that while we all did at least a little bit of lying, we all hated being .
Deliberate lying has become an acceptable practice. .
Supposedly, honorable people shamelessly defend it. Lying is an intentional .
misrepresentation of reality as distinguished from the innocent fantasy common to those .
whose notion of truth and falsehood has yet to develop clearly. Many would argue that a .
"little white lie," never hurt anyone, but the truth is they do. "We have become .
desensitized to the enormous significance of lying, the effects are all destructive, .
generally lowering the level of trust in anything we read or hear," says Karen Peterson in .
her essay "Would I lie to you?".
In today's climate of dishonest politics and corrupt religious leaders, much of .
society grows-up with a contempt for talk of "honesty." The same politicians, who .
promote a return to traditional values, like honesty indicated for lying on their tax returns .
or to a congressional investigation committee. These blatant forms of lying are .
misleading campaign advertisements and partisan propaganda that are a common and .
even integral part of politics the world over. A wide range of people in and around the .
world believe that the obsessive search for wrongdoing in recent years has hurt the .
political system. They contend that scandal politics has made public service less .
attractive and distracted government and the public from more pressing issues. There .
are certain things that a government should refrain from doing, one is to refrain from .
transgressing moral values that are held around the world by every single person.
We need an absolute adherence to moral principles, because if we try to .
adapt moral law to suit our own conveniences, "we are sacrificing our own civilized .
existence."(310 Morganthau) Social Morality is a subject at the intersection of religion .
and science, one that can unite people from different disciplines.
