God and the law in North Carolina
14 September 2005 by RonGifS friend Nick over at Back to the Woom has a nice post on North Carolina’s requiring him to swear to God in order to legally practice law in the state; check out his post “…so help me God“. After noting three separate instances of swearing to God in the oath, he notes that…
As an atheist, I cannot take an oath that refers to (much less one that is partially directed at) a supernatural entity seriously: To me, this is like putting a picture of Mickey Mouse or a smiley face on the oath form.
Or worse; at least those would be decorative.
Of course, this probably shouldn’t surprise us. After all, North Carolina’s state constitution says that “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.” (See the earlier post, “Fortunately, we’re smart enough to not want to be the Governor of North Carolina“.)
