Law Court practice

[NGC_1569]

If you are a victim of violence and are appearing in court and have to swear on the bible but have no religion ( meaning i havent legally been registered with a religion), should you swear on the bible for the sake of the jury, should you refuse to do so, or is it the law that you swear on the bible?

I don’t mind swearing on the bible i have nothing against it, i do occassionaly read the bible, i just wonder if it would be wrong of me to do so in the eyes of the community of this forum.

 

[LilyM]

People who are of no religious persuasion - atheists and such - are permitted to ‘affirm’ (make an oath but not calling upon God) rather than swear by God or on the Bible. There are cases of Muslims taking oaths upon the Koran and such.

To fail to allow this would probably be discrimination against non-theists. Then again you’re not really swearing by the Bible - the words of the oath simply say ‘so help me God’ normally, so as long as you belive in God I guess it’s OK

 

[Bennie_P]

If you are a victim of violence and are appearing in court and have to swear on the bible but have no religion ( meaning i havent legally been registered with a religion), should you swear on the bible for the sake of the jury, should you refuse to do so, or is it the law that you swear on the bible?

I don’t mind swearing on the bible i have nothing against it, i do occassionaly read the bible, i just wonder if it would be wrong of me to do so in the eyes of the community of this forum.

If you do everything you say should be considered a lie - just joking. I don’t know if all the courts even use bibles anymore. I have given testimony in court before and God was never part of the oath. I just had to state that everything that I said was the truth to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Pious_Mat]

The book you swear on is irrelevant, and anyone who makes a big deal out of it ought devote that energy to more pressing issues.

The point of the swearing in is to verbally affirm before a gaggle of witnesses that you promise not to tell a lie. Whether it’s finished up with “so help me God,” or “so help me Santa Clause,” is irrelevant. You promised to tell the truth. Whether you swore it on a book is a matter of tradition and formality only.

The idea is not so much that someone holds a bond with a deity or personal belief that will punish them if tell a lie, but the fact that they have entered into a social contract by living in society, and telling the truth on the stand is part of this social contract.