House votes on reaffirming our Nation's Motto

[georg jetson]

Then we're still Independent from the King of England?

Who's the King of England?

 

[sudden valley gunner]

I've always had a problem with this. Say someone gets elected that has no religious affiliation, or at least isn't affiliated with the Christian Bible. What then? Even better, what if I go to court or for whatever reason and have to swear an oath, where they put my hand on the Bible and end what I'm saying with "so help me God?" To me, the Bible is nothing more than an interesting story book with some good and not so good rules to live by. That oath then means very little. I think it would make more sense to swear an oath my peers. My peers are real (to me) and tangible. God (or Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, or whatever you want to call Him) is no more real to me than Zeus, Apollo, or Thor.

I've been to court and where I live they just make you say I do to an oath to tell the truth, no God mentioned.

(side note, Jehovah is the English word for Yahweh, and no one actually knows how to say it since the Hebrews left out vowels in their writing of the name.)

 

[CEM]

I've always had a problem with this. Say someone gets elected that has no religious affiliation, or at least isn't affiliated with the Christian Bible. What then? Even better, what if I go to court or for whatever reason and have to swear an oath, where they put my hand on the Bible and end what I'm saying with "so help me God?" To me, the Bible is nothing more than an interesting story book with some good and not so good rules to live by. That oath then means very little. I think it would make more sense to swear an oath my peers. My peers are real (to me) and tangible. God (or Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, or whatever you want to call Him) is no more real to me than Zeus, Apollo, or Thor.

I've had to testify in court many times and never had the oath end with (so help you God) or anything like that. There wasn't even a Bible, you just raised your right hand.

 

[Venator]

I've wondered this myself. I've never had to do so, but I'm not sure what one should swear upon if there are no appropriate religious texts. The constitution perhaps, but that seems very silly. Part of the problem is swearing upon something is an innately religiousish act. For those of us who do not believe in Jehovah, Budda, or Al Gore we have nothing really to swear upon in the normal sense. If I was an old man I could swear upon my heirs. Perhaps taking up the Asian view would work and swear upon ones ancestors...

How about "I swear under penalty of law, to tell the truth."?

As to not swearing to god in court, I think it was the Homicide trial for Michael Jackson that I heard the swear to god from the clerk to a witness. So it's still used in some courts.