The Masonic Trowel

... to spread the cement of brotherly love and affection, that cement which unites us into one sacred band or society of brothers, among whom no contention should ever exist, but that noble emulation of who can best work or best agree ...


[What is Freemasonry] [Leadership Development] [Education] [Masonic Talks] [Masonic Magazines Online]
[
Articles] [Masonic Books Online] [E-Books] [Library Of All Articles] [Masonic Blogs] [Links]
 [
What is New] [Feedback]

 Masonic quotes by Brothers



Search Website For


Add To Favorites

Help Me Maintain OUR Website!!!!!!


List of Contributors


PDF This File


Print This Page


Email This Site To ...


more light #299

On Deciding to Lie or Not

by Ed Halpaus
Grand Lodge Education Officer
Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Minnesota


by Stan Shapiro, LEO

As Masons we take pride in honesty. In our dis­cussions we have noted Masons, like all people, sometimes tell “white lies”. We concluded “white lies” are sometimes appropriate if they were told to spare another person’s feelings. I now believe another condition for a lie to be “white “if the person will gain nothing for himself by telling it.

A new study at Harvard University by Joshua Green found that honest people don’t need to worry about being led into temptation to lie. He and his colleagues investigated whether honesty is an act of will or inherent grace. They scanned the brains of 25 people who were told they would re­ceive a monetary reward if they could correctly predict the outcome of a coin toss. Sometimes the par­ticipants had to call out loud as the coin was tossed and sometimes they were asked after the toss what they had guessed. A control group of participants always said their prediction out loud and thus had no opportunity to cheat.

As you would expect, the control group accu­rately predicted heads or tails 50 percent of the time.

The group that had the opportunity to cheat was correct 66 percent of the time with some participants “predicting “heads or tails with 90 percent accu­racy: When these participants chose not to lie, the scans of their brain showed activity in the prefrontal lobe, which is the area used in making decisions. Non-cheaters, who always told the truth, lacked this activity. Post-experiment interviews confirmed that the honest people were aware of the opportunity to cheat. Thus the research team concluded, “When it comes to honesty, it seems more grace than will.”

Does this mean that as Mason’s we are honest more by grace than having to think about whether we will be honest first?

back to top


[What is Freemasonry] [Leadership Development] [Education] [Masonic Talks] [Masonic Magazines Online]
[
Articles] [Masonic Books Online] [E-Books] [Library Of All Articles] [Masonic Blogs] [Links]
 [
What is New] [Feedback]


This site is not an official site of any recognized Masonic body in the United States or elsewhere.
It is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion
of Freemasonry, nor webmaster nor those of any other regular Masonic body other than those stated.

DEAD LINKS & Reproduction | Legal Disclaimer | Regarding Copyrights

Last modified: March 22, 2014