Originally Posted by firegod
Some don't, but most still do; it's up to the judge. You can, however, choose to "affirm" rather than swear on a bible. I've heard that there are still a few courts in this country where you will be held in contempt if you refuse to swear on the bible; if so, that is a problem (and a few judges) that needs to be handled right away.
The fact that you have to actively choose to affirm rather than swear on the bible only reinforces what I said about the dominating ideology. You shouldn't have to single yourself out as "different then the rest" when in court just because you belong to another religion or simply just don't believe religion belongs in the judicial system. What signals are that sending to the jury?
If a bible must be present in the courtroom, which is absurd in the first place since it contradicts the whole idea of freedom of religion, then people should have to actively choose to swear on that instead of the other way around. The best thing though would of course to exclude religion totally from the room where more than anywhere else decisions should be made impartially and based on objectivity.
__________________
The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".
--------
They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.
The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".
--------
They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.