If someone unintentionally tells a lie its still a lie, its just they have been decieved and believe the lie that they passed on otherwise it would be a intentional lie. Believed a lie through deception and passed on the lie so they lied to others.
Something is either true or false there is no inbetween. Every one thing has a opposite and the opposite of truth is a lie, fake news, false misleading information, whatever you want to call it.
A lie is intentional (that's the definition of a lie) whereas and untruth is just an untruth or a misunderstanding is just a misunderstanding. There's a difference. It comes down to the meaning of words. It's a sin to tell a lie because it is an intentional deception and falls into similar territory as giving false witness, which involves one telling a lie.
A lie has an intended purpose. A lie is an untruth but an untruth is not necessarily a lie. An untruth may just be the result of a lack of understanding or knowledge. I can believe something simply because I know no better.
Here are a couple examples.
For a long time it has been believed that water is a good conductor of electricity. This was believed because it was known that being wet makes it more dangerous to work around live electrical current. It is now known that this is not exactly true. In fact, water in its purest form is actually a good insulator and a poor conductor. What makes water a good conductor is not the water itself but the minerals, chemicals, and other impurities suspended in the water that conduct electricity. Before knowing this fact, it was not a lie to say water was a good conductor. It was an untruth but not a lie. Now, for anyone that knows the truth, to say that water is a good conductor would be a lie.
I was an electrical designer for an industrial packaging equipment manufacturer for 30 years. Most of the equipment was designed to be powered by 3-phase 480vac. However, our manufacturing facility was designed with 3-phase 240vac power drops throughout the production area so when we test ran our equipment we made a few simple changes (rewired motors and transformers) to the machinery so we could power them with 240vac and then switch it back when the machines shipped.
Some of those power drops were supplied with 60amp OCPD (circuit breakers) and some were supplied by 100amp OCPD. I remember one of our electrical leadmen (foremen) routinely warning us to take extra precautions with the 100amp drops because "they were far more deadly than the 60amp drops." He was mistaken for this was not true (untruth). It is not necessarily the available amperes that are so dangerous but the combination of volts and amps that are dangerous. Let me explain.
The amount of electrical current that is lethal to a human is roughly 100mA - 200mA across one’s heart. Our bodies present anywhere from about 1,000 ohms to 10,000 ohms resistance to electrical current depending on dirt, oils, open lesions, or wet conditions of our skin. Just using ohm’s law, which doesn’t account for impedance in ac circuits, we can show that at 10,000 ohms we can subject our body to anywhere from 48mA - 480mA of current (up to 4x lethal) with 480v applied depending on skin conditions. Bottom line is that you’d be long dead and probably toasted before tripping the 60A OCPD if you came into contact with 480vac. Even at 240vac you could experience up to 240mA and again be dead long before the OCPD tripped.
That leadman was telling an untruth but he was not lying for he didn’t understand the truth and only shared what he understood.
Definition of lie from Merriam-Webster.
Lie
verb (2)
\ ˈlī \
lied; lying\ ˈlī-iŋ \
Definition of
lie (Entry 3 of 6)
intransitive verb
1
: to make an untrue statement with
intent to deceive.
She was lying when she said she didn't break the vase. He lied about his past experience.
2
: to create a false or misleading impression.
Statistics sometimes lie. The mirror never lies.
transitive verb
: to bring about by telling lies. He
lied his way out of trouble.
lie
noun (2)
\ ˈlī \
Definition of
lie (Entry 4 of 6)
1a
: an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker or writer to be untrue with intent to deceive.
He told a lie to avoid punishment.
