Swearing on Bible scrapped for jurors (Australia)

[The Straight Story]

Swearing on Bible scrapped for jurors
By Geesche Jacobsen
June 13, 2005

There's been no need to kiss it for some time and soon you won't have to touch it any more either.

But even if you don't believe in it, your oath of "so help me God" will continue to bind you.

Under legislation now before State Parliament the Government is scrapping the need for jurors to hold a bible, or other religious text, when swearing their oaths.

A Christian Democratic member of the Legislative Council, the Reverend Fred Nile, mused last week whether this would allow atheists to swear an oath on Karl Marx, or whether jurors could use a dictionary, a copy of Shakespeare, or a newspaper.

Not so, a government spokesman said yesterday.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Swearing-on-Bible-scrapped-for-jurors/2005/06/12/1118514931383.html?oneclick=true