Cheating and lying: the perfect partners in crime.

Cheating and lying have always been present in our lives. While cheating refers to a dishonest behavior for the sake of getting a good result at something; lying relates to statements that are not true. Both of them are accepted by a high percentage of people. Whether they are good for us or not will depend on the perception we have about them. Cheating and lying are not all right because of the negative consequences they can bring to us.

One reason why cheating and lying shouldn't be taken into account is the way those actions could affect our relationship with people we care about. If a friend or family member finds out we have been lying, they would probably lose their trust in us, in other words, they would lose their feeling of confidence that shows they believe we are honest. Many people claim that once they stopped trusting someone, the chances to rebuild the connection they had were very low.

Cheating and lying must be avoided because they make us lose focus on important aspects from our lives. Once we cheat or lie, we start thinking of ways to avoid people from finding out what we have said or done. We can't live a peaceful life because our brain is more worried about finding ways to maintain our secret safe, and thinking of the consequences that our actions might carry: this is why lying and cheating require more effort from us than being honest and saying the truth.

People who cheat and lie are more likely to be hindered by their own circumstances in the future than those who don't cheat or lie. For example, when someone who has cheated on their assignments is hired by future employers, based on the idea that the person has gotten excellent grades, he or she won't fulfill all the requirements for the job, because this person won't have the minimum knowledge needed for that job.

In conclusion, cheating and lying affect us in a negative way. Our cheats and lies are capable of ruining relationships, stealing our valuable time and hindering us in the future. Even though being honest and saying the truth sound life-threatening, it is extremely important to keep in mind that you will avoid situations that could end up affecting your health if you decide to avoid dishonest actions.

Sources:

• http://www.thehopeline.com/how-lying-hurts-you/
• http://tipsforsuccessblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/tipsforsuccess-consequences-of-lying.html

Fake it until you get it.

One of the biggest concerns that the majority of people around the world have is how they can maintain a healthy lifestyle. While a high percentage of inhabitants rather stay healthy and avoid any kind of illness, there is an odd group of people who like to fake their health conditions. I believe people are capable of controlling how they want to feel when they are not suffering from a real illness. Some individuals simulate they don’t feel well because of the different benefits they can get from this.

By pretending to be dealing with an illness, a person can avoid his or her responsibilities.  A common example that illustrates the previous statement can be found at schools: students pretend to be sick and go straight to the nurse's office in order to skip an evaluated activity, such as homework they didn't do, or an exam for which they didn't study. 

Another benefit obtained by people who pretend being sick is the sympathy they manage to earn from the ones who are taking care of them. For example, in 2008, a woman named Dina Leone shared with her family and friends that she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. This woman kept updating everyone on her treatment and progress. Thanks to her non-existing illness, she got support from her loved ones and get-well cards. In this case, the woman, who was seeking attention, recurred to this insane idea and got what she wanted.

One more benefit obtained by faking an illness is getting money in an easy way. For instance, in 1999, Kristen Clougherty from Boston told her friends and family she had cancer. They decided to organize a fundraising in her name, and with the money they raised, which was about $50,000, Clougherty bought a new car and got implants on her breasts.

In conclusion, the gain obtained by people who alleges being sick works as a motivation for them to keep committing those dishonest actions. Whether if they want to avoid certain responsibilities, claim for attention or get easy money, all those so-called benefits might end up affecting the person’s life.

Sources:

1. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/11/21/addicted-to-illness-how-one-woman-recovered-from-20-year-struggle-with/
2. http://www.livescience.com/8097-people-fake-illness.html
3. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/factitious-disorders

Parents: instill your religion, but don’t enslave your children!

Nowadays, parents find themselves having a hard time when they try to decide whether they should instill their beliefs about religion in their children or not. Although the majority of children complain about being forced to adopt a religious belief, parents continue claiming their authority of being the only ones who can select the perfect religion for their children. While I believe parents should guide their children on the path they think is the best, other people claim that children become slaves with no rights to choose what they prefer according to what they have learned through the years. If parents choose to instill their beliefs of religion to their children, they should consider different aspects that might cause difficulties during the process in order to avoid further conflicts.

Depending on the type of education they get at school, children could perceive their parents’ religious beliefs differently. Children learn from parents how to behave at home; but once they are outside home, they learn rules about how to behave outside home¹. This is why teachers have an important role over a child’s development: a good teacher is capable of influencing a whole classroom of kids in the right direction, but for the teacher, the right path may differ from the parents’ perspectives, even if these are about religion.

If children feel pressured or obliged to follow religious traditions, they could end up rejecting them at some point. As an example, we have a famous philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche. He grew up in an atmosphere of deep religiosity; in addition, his mother insisted through the years that he had to become a Lutheran pastor. Nietzsche got tired of being pressured by his family, and he ended up rejecting Christianity.

As children grow up, their own conclusions about religion may differ from the ones their parents have. In my experience through my second year of high school, I have learned different aspects about various religions that my parents never taught me. Those aspects have radically changed the way I used to understand how religion worked, thing that has created many arguments between me and them.

Summarizing the different points presented before, it is extremely important for parents to take into account all the situations and perhaps other situations they might encounter through the vast path of teaching their beliefs about religion to their children. In fact, when children get influenced by other people or information  acquired at school, their perspective about religion is more likely to change. Once the difficulties are recognized, both parents and children will try to avoid conflicts that could end up hurt them.

Laziness: brought to you by "the progress".

As a result of different events that took place during the Middle Age, we find ourselves immersed into a concept known as progress, which can be defined as an improvement of the quality of life for human beings thanks to the invention of equipment dedicated to help us and the patenting of creativity. This specific concept can be seen as a controversial one, due to the fact that for some people, progress has been the reason why life conditions are better nowadays than how they were in previous years; and for others, progress can be seen as something that has made us lazy. Progress is the responsible of laziness in our current world due to different factors.

Thanks to the poor education system that certain countries have, the incentive of creativity, which is an important fact for people to not become lazy and for a country to progress, has been put aside. Third world countries usually want to achieve academic standards featured in first world countries, focusing only in the academic performance of the students. As a result, the lack of creativity allows the inhabitants from those countries to be satisfied with things that they already have.

Since we believe that everything has already been made, we remain desiring existing things instead of inventing something new. The inventors from all the equipment we use in our daily life have stolen the possibility of being creative to people who live in countries that are not as globalized as others.

Machines that are built to save our time when doing certain activities keep replacing us, without us even noticing. Advertising campaigns play an important role in this situation, because their objective is to convince more viewers to purchase what they’re offering, telling them that they will fulfill all the expectations they have from the product. After buying it and using it, you start to feel better because of the little effort you make in order to get the activity done: as the machine starts to replace us, we decide to not stop this because of the pleasure we feel when we do nothing.

In conclusion, laziness and progress walk hand in hand in today’s world. Consequently, it is of utmost importance to have in mind that the approach taken by the education system from a country will determine its future, which includes how the relationship between humans and machines will develop.

Silence should be feared by every human being

Some people believe that keeping themselves quiet, without sharing their opinion, is what will protect them from being involved into situations that might cause them feel unprotected. Although different constitutions from different countries around the world feature an article which restates our freedom of speech, many people opt to not share what they think. Consequently, while some think silence should be feared, others think there is nothing to worry about this particular situation. Not being afraid of silence shows how insecure a person can be and allows different situations to happen which are against human nature.

Being afraid of what people will think about your own arguments is the number one reason why some individuals decide to not share what they think. Most of the time, our mind turns around the possible reactions that the receptor could have after we have said something: the reaction we set in our mind is, most of the time, negative. By doing this, we are setting ourselves down, because we never know how things will develop for us.

Thinking of yourself being judged is another misconception you create in your mind. There is no doubt we will be judged by being alienated with certain ideas; the problem here is how we interpret others’ judgments. Depending on the circumstances we live, the education we receive, the people we’re surrounded by and other aspects, we will develop different methods to “process” incoming information in our brain; therefore, all the reasons why we feel we are going to be attacked can be changed.

In the long run, not wanting to share our ideas becomes a double-edged sword. This can be illustrated with how we might be forced to agree or to accept what others say because we are too afraid to share our thoughts and let them know what we think about their ideas. Humans, by nature, don’t like being forced to do what others say: this becomes a contradiction with people who don’t argue or question why they have to do what they’re being asked to.

In conclusion, people who decide to remain quiet go against their own rights. Fearing how your arguments will be judged by others causes a negative impact in other people. Thus, it is of utmost importance to consider how we can be directly affected in the future if we don't take a shot and speak up for ourselves.