Einstein may not have been Toadfish material shocker

[Griffin NoName]

But if you take both sets of statements, the private one seems in direct contradiction to the public ones-- this is not lying, it's just being polite.

Context is everything, in communication.

I don't think it is polite to lie.

Content is everything in communication.

1. I did not have sex with her.
2. I did have sex with her.



this is topic drift at its finest !

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Perhaps. But I'm more inclined to agree with Zono, Beagle and Mero. Atheism was not an accepted view, and the man WAS a refugee, after all, and it would be rather bad to be blacklisted as a Commie or whatever.

I will be the first to admit to lying about my views to stay out of trouble--I nearly got kicked out of the house last spring for telling my mother I wasn't Catholic, and I DIDN'T tell her what I really believed, because that would have gotten me kicked out and disowned instantaneously. I can identify with Einstein because of that.

Voice a view that's borderline, and you can get away with it, even if it's a little dishonest.

Voice a view that's a societal (or familial) anathema and you will suffer for it.

[Griffin NoName]

In discussing a specific case, I agree with the concensus. I am however wary of generalising from a specific.

[beagle]

I don't think it is polite to lie.

But most people can't handle the truth, as a famous philosopher (might have been Tom Cruise) once said.