What I Believe About Truth

               I believe that truth needs to be concealed sometimes. Trying to hide the truth by lying is bad. I’m not saying that everyone should lie just to hide their faults so they don’t have to deal with the consequences. Lying leads to lying, so lying in the first place would not be a good idea to choose at first. However, there are some instances where truth must be hidden.

               One reason is to keep the innocence and the childhood dreams of children. Children are fascinated by things so easily, and Santa Claus is one of the things they are mesmerized by. Of course, the adults know that Santa Claus exists, but every Christmas, they would buy presents for them and say that Santa Claus came by. Some would even dress up as a Santa and be a Santa Claus for their children just for a day so they would not ruin their thoughts of Santa Claus. Debunking the idea of Santa Claus may bring shock the children. Some children find out the truth by discovering by accident that their parents were the Santa Claus. Even though the truth that Santa Claus is not real cannot be concealed forever, having the thought of receiving presents from Santa Claus at the time of your childhood should be treasured. Childhood is the time when you should be innocent, knowing nothing of the truth about the real society.

               Another reason is to hide something that will hurt the others emotionally. Although it is not a good idea (since they are going to find out sometime later), I think that it should be hidden so that they can be unaware of it as long as it possibly could to prevent them from experiencing mental or heart breakdown. It may be the death of a distant relative (I would not say close relative, because the news is going to spread fast and it must be known soon. Not knowing the death of your close relatives can even bring guilt, and this would hurt the person more). Some people might argue that they should face it when it comes to them since they are going to find it out anyways. Why not face it now and get over with it? I do agree to a certain degree. They are going to find out in the end, but there are some people who can never get over these things because of emptiness, guilt, or whatever it may be. To these people, I just want them to live a happy life for at least a little bit longer, so they would not have to live in misery for a longer time.

               I think that hiding the truth may aggravate the situation. Some will certainly get mad for not knowing the truth earlier, but they would have to realize that it was done for the benefit of them. When it is done for the benefits of others, lying should not be considered a bad deed or even a sin. How can it be bad when it is benefitting someone? It is certainly bad when a person tries to hide the truth, like cheating in a test for instance, to prevent from getting a detention or a suspension. However, lying must not be looked in a bad way when it is for the benefit of others. Lying can bring peace for at least a longer period of time (Why not keep the peace longer when it is certain that it is going to be broken soon?) and this would mean that everyone would be happy at least for a longer period of time.