Place your hand on the bible and repeat after me

IDLEchild

IDLEchild

Well-Known Member
It is the best selling book of all time, the most respected, most criticized, the most translated, and most conterversial but mostly it demands respect so why is it's diginity botched in the system of justice.

I am reffering to the usage of bible in the court to swear an oath to tell the truth...when anything but is told. Isn't that a disrespect to the holy book? Christians are ready to vehemently defend their faith and its tangible form; the bible, so why do they allow this disrespect to go on?

Gangsters, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, peadophiles, theives all place their hand on the "Holy" book and swear to tell the truth when everyone in the room knows that a lie upon a lie will be told with no fear of any god or eternal damnation because at that moment only fear of incarcination reigns king....So why go on with this joke? Why bring down the value of their faith by using their holy book as a device to undertake some useless act?
 
I suppose to godbotherers it's a book that should be respected.

To everyone else it's just another piece of literature :shrug:
 
Its the act of swearing that the court is interested in. After that, they can criminalize you for having lied. The book is just a carryover from more religious times. kinda like a few hundred years of tradition unaffected by progress...:retard:
 
this is only half-related, but i decided a long time ago, that if i were sworn in as president or other high office rank, i'd swear on a copy of The Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy...
(cos theres no rule that says it has to be the bible... if there is [by the time i get there], i'd have it changed ^_^)
 
ash r said:
this is only half-related, but i decided a long time ago, that if i were sworn in as president or other high office rank, i'd swear on a copy of The Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy...
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That's brilliant! :D

I wonder what they'd think if I wanted to swear on a copy of The Catcher in the Rye......or better yet, Trainspotting! :evilcool:
 
ash r said:
this is only half-related, but i decided a long time ago, that if i were sworn in as president or other high office rank, i'd swear on a copy of The Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy...
(cos theres no rule that says it has to be the bible... if there is [by the time i get there], i'd have it changed ^_^)
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You may have the second-worst haircut I've ever seen, but :lol: That's fantastic. :D :headbang:
 
I agree BCD...erm, Lazyboy.....ah bugger IC...the use of the Bible to swear on in court is outdated. Even if it's just the 'swearing' part the court is interested in. It also seems a bit odd that Jews, Islamic or other religious folk would be asked to swear on a book that holds no value to them as being binding on their conscience, they might as well be taking an oath on toiletpaper :eh:
 
um...maybe this is just me....but if you were religious enough to believe that the bible is a holy book wouldn't you also believe that telling a lie, hand on the bible or no, is a sin...therefore wrong?
 
tonks said:
um...maybe this is just me....but if you were religious enough to believe that the bible is a holy book wouldn't you also believe that telling a lie, hand on the bible or no, is a sin...therefore wrong?
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It would then only be applicable to those who hold the Bible as a holy book - so would that then mean that those who aren't religious or not Christian can lie as they see fit?
 
I told a judge once that the bible meant nothing to me. He said to swear on it anyway. :shrug: I have personal feelings about lying and liars.
 
IDLEchild said:
Gangsters, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, peadophiles, theives all place their hand on the "Holy" book and swear to tell the truth when everyone in the room knows that a lie upon a lie will be told with no fear of any god or eternal damnation because at that moment only fear of incarcination reigns king....So why go on with this joke? Why bring down the value of their faith by using their holy book as a device to undertake some useless act?
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*throws in $.02 even though i don't claim to know much about christianity*

isn't that what jesus, god, and whoever is up there wants? wasn't it their mission to go out among those very types of people and save them? didn't jesus dine with that tax collector guy when everyone else was opposed to it?

to me, your christian god knows that these people will lie for their personal benefit, yet he died to save them anyway. :shrug:
 
believe in the bible or not, it is used as a prop during oath taking

this is an example of "ceremonial deism" -- a concept introduced in 1962 by Eugene Rostow the Dean of Yale Law School

other examples include "under God" in the pledge, "in God we Trust" on money, govt buildings used for December holiday displays, state mottoes, etc
 
tonks said:
um...maybe this is just me....but if you were religious enough to believe that the bible is a holy book wouldn't you also believe that telling a lie, hand on the bible or no, is a sin...therefore wrong?
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Thats where the dismissal of the holiness and the shaming on the book comes in. It is wrong but no one cares, the book holds no value in the room of justice so why not retire the useless tradition.

to me, your christian god knows that these people will lie for their personal benefit, yet he died to save them anyway.
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True, but that does not mean we can use his generosity and good will to disrespect his death again and again. Jesus may have died for sins of mankind but that still does not mean we can use that reasoning to swear fake oaths....BTW I am not Chrisitian.

It also seems a bit odd that Jews, Islamic or other religious folk would be asked to swear on a book that holds no value to them as being binding on their conscience, they might as well be taking an oath on toiletpaper
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Good point, I am sure there should be some legal merit in that seeing as how there is no national religion in U.S.A
 
Guess instead of saying: Do you SWEAR to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They should say: Do you PLAN to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Ummmm NO, OK hand off bible.... :lol2:
 
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