>>I don't know about down there, but up here you have the option to swear without a Bible or God. You just need to raise your right hand and say the words attesting to tell the truth.
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>I believe that is correct here too. My question was more on, why is that there at all? The same point as with the Pledge of Allegiance where one can skip the God part. As I see it, you should be required to swear on your honor, maybe on the Constitution, whatever, but not on the Bible which is definitely the Christian kind. There should be no such request or requirement. Or can I swear on the Koran? Torah? Why not the Humanist Manifesto?
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>Perjury laws exist and the penalty is just as strong wether you used a Bible or not. So why the Bible? IMO it's unconstitutional as is the "Under God" phrase under discussion.

This is a tangent but I saw/read somewhere that you raise your right hand so that the court room and judge can see it. In medieval times, thieves were branded with a "T" just under the thumb on the palm. The thinking was if you were a thief, you were probably a liar. Granted this doesn't have much to do with the subject, but I thought I would share.