For the last few years I have been working at getting as close to complete honesty as I can. I'm at 58.7 percent now.

Politics and religion are beliefs, yes, but i don't see them as core. For me, the core is who you are, your morals and ethics. When one can be honest with themselves, they can then be honest with others, but not until then can they experience true honesty.

As far as honesty, who are you to judge? Why do your "thoughts" on the subject matter?
Honesty to me means, if you ask I'll tell you the truth. If I don't speak to you, interact with you, or hang around you, (I mean a general you this time, and not specifically ripcurldane.) I don't owe you any information or explanation. I don't tell everyone I meet that I'm straight, or that I spent 11 years in the army, or I was married for 10 years, or any number of inane, inconsequential facts. Is that dishonesty?

I appreciate this site simply because the indiviuals commenting here have no one to fear for their position. They can be totally honest and I do not know why on this site they would protray anything but honesty!

I have always felt that not speaking my truth was tantamount to lying. I still feel that way, but as I've gotten older I've learned, increasingly, that "speaking the truth" does not always serve my interests, and can even be quite detrimental. So I've learned to be quiet, and adjust my attitude about it. I don't like it, but I like having insecure people be hateful toward me even less.

Am I honest? I am practically incapable of lying. Put me on the spot and you'll get the truth. But good luck with that. I am exceedingly good at keeping my mouth shut.

I am honest, or I tell it as I see it. I always own up to my errors. I will not deliberately hurt someone, but if you ask me what I think..... I will try to be kind but truthful. I am not going to beat someone over the head with my beliefs or lack thereof. I fall back to T.H.I.N.K. Is it True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary or Kind.And I think had I been alive 80 years ago I'd have been working for the resistance.

I older I get the more I hate lying. I'm a very good liar. When I was a kid telling Nana I enjoyed church meant I would get cookies or money or whatever and for a long time I would lie about my own beliefs and thoughts to make everyone happy.
The thing is that living a lie hurts your 'soul' for lack of a better word than anything else I've found. You start losing yourself.
You have to draw a line somewhere for me I refused to agree with racism no matter how pleased it would have made certain members of my family. I find there are fewer and fewer things I'm willing to lie about to make others happy nowadays.
Now only my grandparents still think I'm Christian and I refuse to talk politics with them at all, though that is becoming harder to do as Trump gets worse and worse and they still like him.
I've found that telling the truth about your inner thoughts and morals is wonderfully freeing. I'd love to not have to lie at all one day, but as long as my grandparents are still living I won't be able to without hurting them horrendously.

I feel that not speaking out is the same as lying. Sometimes I have to hold back to keep and continue with my job, but I try to be honest about politics. I pray for Donald Trump every day. I pray that he will get ebola.

I don't see people being dishonest about their politics here. Much less anything else.
Could you provide some examples of what has brought you to that conclusion?

I must be honest, how else would I be so unpopular everywhere I go. Flatulence aside.

My truth is my truth to do with as I please. Yes If I had been Polish in Nazi Germany I would have saved my life if I could by lying. And, Yes if someone is hassling me today I will do whatever I need to do to get out of their orbit - I decided long ago that it was ok for me to lie to get out of a poor situation (My Mum's expecting me back home before now, I have to go!). My only condition for myself is that I never ever get to believe that wasn't a lie. My truth is I lied.

It never fails to concern me when someone makes a sweeping generalization about a group, any group, then without preamble slips directly into argument from fear or authority. Perhaps you might wish to reword your post?

The fist thing I said to my youngest was, "I will never lie to you." And I don't. Granted, that means her mother had to take on the Santa issue, but when my daughter asked me straight out, I told her the truth.

I am but I was always this way out which makes it easier for me. I was never -conditioned by anyone to believe or not believe My parents were not religious and were not very bothered about me. I don't imagine there is anything about me that I would not share in this context but boringly never been anything other than atheist.

"From the rhetoric I have gleaned on this site I think there are a lot of people who are dishonest about politics. An omission is as good as a lie as they say."

Call me daft, but I'm missing your point. What political rhetoric do you believe is being dishonestly omitted? Where do you think one's political stripe fits in a website devoted to agnosticism? You appear to be casting a wide net, as I've seen, and engaged in, plenty of honest discourse regarding political viewpoints, sometimes finding common ground, sometimes not.

Mostly I'm curious about what dishonesty you see on here? Could it be that people believe differently than you do and you're seeing that as dishonesty?

I agree that we need to be honest about our beliefs and opinions. But, I am not sure of exactly what you are talking about. Please give real examples of what you are trying to show.

Great memes, and spot on.

I'm very honest, pretty much all the time. I'm open about my beliefs (and lack of religious belief), and those beliefs inform my political opinions. To me, being politically progressive is of a piece of being an atheist, a feminist, a skeptic, and so on.

The only time I'm quiet at all is when working with a customer in my job. If they start expressing political views I'm just quiet. I don't encourage them, agree with them, or argue with them. I wasn't hired for my beliefs and it isn't appropriate for me to engage in any exchange about them with a customer.

What the fuck difference is it going to make telling people I'm atheist. Omission is only a lie when harm is done, because nothing was said that could have made a difference.

i like the Voltaire quote, but... there isn't really any politician (puppet), not even any powermonger (puppet master) these days who i am not allowed to critizise - or feel is above any critizism.

i have had enough of our so-called democratic political system for decades now, & never minced my words about it. in my mind the only form of society that has a chance of survival these days is a decentralized sovereignty of the people - anarchy in its original & most benign form.

free speech?! i have to laugh a sarcastic howl here. free speech received the death knell when political correctness became trendy.

i've had it with contemporary practised so-called politics to an extent that, so as not to poison my daily life, i have to refrain from following any of the dinosaurical crap on offer.

please accept the above as my most genuine take on what you were referring to.

I have to be honest with you, I have NO idea what you're talking about. To me, integrity is more important than honesty, because integrity motivates us to be who we "are," and to live up to our values. Honesty is just an excuse for saying horrible things to people you don't like. The most difficult people to have a conversation with are those who say, "I speak the truth." Or those who say, "I tell it like it is." Both are dangerous... not to mention completely impossible.

If someone asks me any question about any subject, they're going to get a series of responses that have been filtered through my upbringing, my societal views, and my values. So it's not going to be "truth." If I happen to be a man of integrity, I'll avoid answering most questions since I'm hardly qualified on how to live another person's life.

As to "revealing the truth about your beliefs..." beliefs are giant generalizations we make in the absence of evidence. If I have to believe something, it's because I don't have enough evidence to support it as actual fact. Water boils at 212 degrees whether I believe in it or not. So my goal is to "CHALLENGE" my beliefs. Find ways to keep them from taking over.

You wrote: "From the rhetoric I have gleaned on this site I think there are a lot of people who are dishonest about politics."

Something I've observed over time has been that it's usually those making these general accusations that are the guilty. Someone who says "people can't be trusted," just so happens to be someone that nobody can trust, and those around him tend to take care around him. And then, ironically, as a dishonest person, that's the type of people you just happen to connect with because you have so much in common... even though the relationship is destroying you. Someone who says that everybody else is dishonest tends to be the dishonest one, and everybody else is simply responding to him.

I'm guessing you think you know what everybody should be saying and thinking, which, ironically, is exactly how Germany worked during WWII. I'm saying, get yourself some integrity, and the "honesty" will follow. But that's on you. The rest of us aren't responsible to embrace your beliefs as if they had been handed down from Mount Sinai. Sorry, but "freethinker" means "THINKING" first and foremost, and doing so independently of an ideology and their ideologues.

Relax, calm yourself. Politics by definition is dishonest and anyone associated with it. As for people being honest about their beliefs, well only they know this truly, when they are alone or put their head on a pillow to sleep at night. James

Just in my own opinion I believe that omission of facts when pertinent to a given situation could be tantamount to lying, although omissions of beliefs and personal philosophy is not. How is not revealing ones personal beliefs a lie unless you are being questioned directly what specific beliefs you have? Personally I haven't witnessed what you have gleaned. Like others have commented already, a more specific scenario would be helpful. Otherwise maybe you feel others are dishonest just because you don't agree with them politically.

I kind of suck at lying, and I have been informed by many people that I have a tendency to drift into TMI territory. However, while there are such things as lies of omission, that does not mean that failing to broadcast everything whether someone wants to know or not is the same thing as lying; instead it is being prudent. I'm getting the hang of personal boundaries that include concepts like certain things are none of anybody's business, even if they ask. I now see how in certain situations, there can a variety of benefits to brevity, especially under certain circumstances.

I regard myself as well into the honest end of the spectrum, but doing better about drifting too far into the "too honest" spectrum.