Honesty and Truthfulness

At first glance you might think that being honest and truthful are synonymous.  But there actually is a big difference in the two qualities.  Truth is a constant.  Truth is unchangeable.  It is what it is.  Regardless of your beliefs, truth is truth.  Honesty on the other hand is based on your beliefs.  Honesty is not always based on what is true.

For example, eye witnesses believe what they say they saw is true, but often times are very wrong.  An eyewitness might say they saw the perpetrator drive off in a blue truck wearing a red shirt.  When in fact, truth of the matter is that truck was red and the shirt was blue.  But, they were honest in their description of what they saw, because that's what they believed they saw.  Eye witnesses are notorious for honestly giving wrong information while being adamant that they are right.

Another example of being honest but not truthful are liberals.  They believe a multitude of falsities and honestly spew them as truth.  One example that comes to mind is abortion.  Liberals keep pounding into everyone's head that abortion is women's healthcare.  And many people honestly believe that.  But the truth of the matter is that abortion is murder.  Abortion is the furthest thing from healthcare.  People are easily brainwashed into believing the lies from the left. 

One more example.  Atheists believe there is no God.  They would probably pass a lie detector test professing as much.  Because they honestly believe it.  Although, I think deep down in their subconscious mind everybody knows there's a God.  But I digress.  Regardless of what atheists believe and profess, the truth of the matter is that there is a God.  So an atheist may be honest in his claim of not believing in God.  But, he would not be truthful because God does exist.

People can honestly believe untruths, unfortunately.  In fact, this is one of Satan's greatest tactics.  To get people to believe lies.

For those who may be deceived into believing Satan's lies, there is a way to decipher truth.  The answer is found in The Book of Mormon.

Moroni 10:5

"And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

The Holy Ghost reveals all truths.  How do we access that power?  Through prayer, with real intent, having faith in Christ.  That's how truth is manifest to us through the Holy Ghost.

The reason I have been thinking of the difference between truthfulness and honesty is because of the Johnny Depp trial.  I know, we all thought I was done talking about the Johnny Depp trial but, apparently I'm not.  :-)

There were many text messages and emails presented by the defense during the trial.  Many vile, vulgar, and profane messages.  And while admittedly embarrassed and ashamed of what he said and of the language he used, Johnny Depp, nonetheless, owned them and admitted to writing them.  Except for two.

There were two text messages that Johnny Depp denied writing.  I wondered why he would deny writing these two, when he owned up to all the rest.  After pondering this for a while, I've got a couple of theories.

Perhaps, knowing that he wrote them, he felt they were so "grotesque" that he couldn't bear to own up to them.  Which would be deceptive and dishonest.  Or he really didn't think he wrote them.  In which he would be honest in his denial.  Regardless of the truth.

I think it's the latter.  Here's why: what was written in those text messages goes against Johnny's core beliefs, and who he is as a person.  When Mr. Rottenborn (opposing counsel) asked him if he believed what was written, Mr. Depp replied that, no, that was ludicrous.  He said he didn't have that kind of hubris.  Mr. Depp was very adamant in his denial.  In fact, when Mr. Rottenborn said, "pull-up exhibit such and such", Mr. Depp said, "you can pull up what you want, I've never said those things".  Then when he saw the actual text messages on the screen, he had a sincere look of shock on his face.  So, even if he did write them, he obviously wasn't aware of it.

Now, as to the truth of whether Mr. Depp did actually write those text messages, I don't know.  At first I thought he did because they are written in his style of writing.  Using all caps on some words with multiple exclamation points.  But that's easy to decipher and copy.  So someone else could have easily written those messages using Johnny's phone.  So I'm kind of split on whether he actually wrote them or not.  

Mr. Depp certainly could have written those messages in a drug and alcohol fueled state where he doesn't remember writing them.  Or someone else could have written them, using his phone, pretending to be him.

But, that truth doesn't really matter.  I think, in this case, his honesty is more important than the truth of who wrote the messages.

Because Mr. Depp was so honest in all of the other embarrassing, vile, vulgar, profane text messages, I find it hard to believe that he would lie about these particular messages.  I fully believe that he was completely honest during the entire trial, including his denial of writing these two particular text messages.

Whether the denial was truthful or not is yet to be determined but I do believe that it was honest.

The way I see it, is that honesty is sincerely professing what you believe to be true, with no intention of deception.  And truthfulness is professing things as they really are.

So, yes, honesty and truthfulness to go hand-in-hand, but they are not synonymous.

I would say that truthfulness always comes with honesty.  But honesty doesn't always come with truthfulness.

That's my two cents.