My wife and I have had a discussion along these lines. When our son was about five he was confused and mistaken about something. Dispite our efforts to show him his misunderstanding he refused to agree with us.
My wife got a bit upset and started to tell him he was lying. I defended him and said, no, he wasn’t lying, he was wrong. My wife’s opinion was that since what he was saying was not “true” it was a lie.
As an example she said those who deny Christ are liars. I think things are a bit more nuanced. Denying something which you know, in your heart, to be true is lying, while making an honest mistake is not.
Conversely, telling a non-truth, which does not benefit you and objectively benefits another (No, Mr. Gestapo, there are no Jews in our attic.) is also not lying.
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