Swearing On The Bible
Posted on: August 5, 2010 - 8:08am
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Swearing On The Bible
I just watched Naomi Campbell giving eye witness testimony in Charles Taylor's trial in Den Haag.
They showed her swearing on the bible.
I find it a little archaic that this is still practised in court.
As an atheist I would find it insulting to have to swear on a religious text.
And aren't secular countries supposed to separate religion and politics?
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Yeah it is archaic but then the entire legal system seems to love being archaic. In the US you don't have to swear on the bible, you can request a different text or swear on nothing the whole process is more ceremonial than anything. I'm not sure if they would let you swear on a copy of Harry Potter, maybe I'll try that if I ever need to testify.
As for the whole separation of religion and politics I don't get as upset over it as some atheists. Religious and political philosophies overlap so much it really is impossible to completely separate them. As long as no one tries to force me to participate in a particular religion or persecute me I really don't care. So if they want to pray or swear on their bibles good for them. Smile, pat them on the head and tell them "Of course Santa is going to bring you nice presents"
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
It is superfluous to say the least, BUT consistent with the CORRECT attitude the founders had in "freedom of conscious".
All of us here who are atheists agree that swearing to a god would be the same as swearing to a piece of lint. If swearing to a god made you tell the truth magically, there would be no need for perjury laws.
HOWEVER, the founders had to take into account that people will hold beliefs they might not agree with and that this event MUST be accessible to all to suit the whims of the individual.
What most in America don't understand is that swearing to a deity BY ANY NAME as an inclusion to a government oath is VOLUNTARY, not mandatory.
Why must someone be allowed to swear on a bible? For the same reason the Muslim might want to swear to Allah to tell the truth. Not because we agree there is any credibility to doing that, but to keep the act NEUTRAL so that we can "affirm" to our own conscious.
While I agree swearing an oath to God/Allah/ Vishnu is needless in order to tell the truth, allowing for such takes into account human nature. There are 6 billion of us, much less to mention the 300 million who live under our Court System in America.
The only way to rid our Country of this needless act, is not to force it out of existence, but to demand the neutrality on our government's part. The more people see others outside of Christianity swearing to other gods or affirming to a court, the more people will see that truth is recorded, not magically, but through the scrutiny of your words vs what they compare it to in reality of the court.
All humans of all labels are capable of telling the truth to a court and lying to a court. But if one wants to assign this "truth telling" to a magical being, I cant stop them. All I ask from my government is that I am not forced to swear to their deity in order to be believed by the court.
Your words outside the "oath" are what are compared by the court and what the judge and jury weigh as evidence.
Promising to tell the truth and swearing to Darwin, or Vishnu or Dawkins or Jesus MEAN NOTHING. What you say as testimony is what matters, not what you want others to believe motivates you to tell the truth. You either will tell the truth, or you wont.
There are are no magic words preventing anyone of any label, believer or atheist, from either lying or telling the truth.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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