> Changing gears, when the district court judge I clerked for swore in witnesses, she always said, " Do you swear to tell the truth (etc.). . . so help you God?" I pointed out that the Constitution permits a witness to swear _or affirm_, and does not require reference to a divine being. (This was a concession to the Quakers, who traditionally will not swear.) She said, I'll make people ask for that. If you were to ask, it would probably completely discredit you, of course, or having called attention to the fact that you would not swear on God's name, at least unless you made it clear that you had religious grounds for not swearing. Me, I'm an atheist, but I'd swear.
AGNOSTIC, n. An atheist who craves social acceptance.
- The American Heretics' Dictionary
Brian
-- "At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche