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All Things Considered

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Religion & Ethics

Religious affairs programme, tackling thorny issues in a thought-provoking manner

Religious affairs programme, tackling the thornier issues of the day in a thought-provoking manner

All Things Considered: Truth and Lies

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Truth and Lies

BBC Radio Wales - All Things Considered, Truth and Lies

Is lying always wrong? Jonathan Thomas looks at the problem of sifting fact from fiction.

Is lying ever acceptable? Jonathan Thomas talks to four people who each work in the area of lying, and sifting fact from fiction.

Is it always wrong to lie? Is even sometimes acceptable to lie? Jonathan Thomas looks at the range of lies, from little white lies, small fibs to subtle deceptions and  giant whoppers. 
Despite our moral outrage at being lied to, most of us learn to lie at a young age, as a normal part of our development. Professor Victoria Talwar of McGill University, Montreal, has studied lying in children at her research laboratory, establishing that the vast majority of children between the ages of 4-7 will be inclined to tell a lie, of greater or lesser subtlety according to their age and cognitive development. For theologian Revd Dr Craig Gardiner there's a distinction to be drawn between dry facts and multi-faceted truth, and there are some occasions when the better course is to tell  a bare-faced lie. For criminal barrister Andrew Taylor spotting lies is part and parcel of his daily work and he reveals some of the tell-tale signs he watches out for in witnesses. Meanwhile, for psychologist Dr Lewis Bott the process of telling the truth and telling a lie is very similar, and some accomplished liars can go undetected. For him, there is nothing to beat patient sifting of the facts to establish whether or not somebody is lying.

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