this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
12 points (83.3% liked)

No Stupid Questions

36188 readers
1073 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

What the title says.

top 15 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] khepri 11 points 2 years ago

Of course. If you promise to do something, but don't intend to follow through, did you still make that promise? Yes you did. If that promise was legally binding (as in an oath of office or oath before a court) you can of course be held accountable for that oath whether you "believe" in the thing or not. Can you imagine what a mess it would be if you could just say "well I don't believe in the Bible, so I can lie in front of a judge all I want since they made me swear on a Bible"?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As others have said: Yes, it does count. You're still making a formal, legally-binding pledge, in front of witnesses, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By the way, you don't actually need to swear at all. If you're an atheist, you can instead make a solemn affirmation, which is the same thing but without invoking a deity.

Historian Brett Devereaux goes into the finer details of oaths here. The idea of invoking the names of deities when one makes a promise is as old as religion. The idea is that doing so calls the attention of that deity, who then acts as a witness and enforcer of the promise (so make sure it's carefully worded!) Thus, in ye olden dayes, if you swear by God to tell the truth and then tell a lie, the punishment is damnation in Hell for breaking a promise that God formally witnessed. Touching a Bible (or a relic or religious artifact) makes the oath more potent.

[–] meekah 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

lemmy broke the wikipedia link :(

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] meekah 1 points 2 years ago

No problem, just wanted to notify you :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Oaths are only as serious as you take them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Well in court you're actually swearing to tell the truth against a penalty of purgery. They used to make you put your hand on a bible, but they don't do that anymore. Now it's considered religious bigotry.

I've never seen anyone take on oath on the bible in making a promise to another person. Maybe that was a common thing to do ages ago, but I've not seen it my life.

If someone ever asked me to do that I'd be weirded out by it and probably refuse. If someone did manage to make me, it wouldn't carry any more or less weight than my word normally does. A promise is a promise.

[–] zloubida 3 points 2 years ago

I'm a Christian, but the American way to oath on the Bible always seemed kind of strange.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Legal yes, ethically maybe not.

[–] Today 2 points 2 years ago

Does it count to who? Saying its ok to lie because your don't believe in a book is as valid as saying it's ok because your crossed your fingers.

[–] Hufflechuffed 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

¯\(ツ)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The whole point of swearing on the bible was to get God to be involved in enforcing the oath. So your disbelief may negate this aspect. On the gripping hand, you also swear in front of a government representative to get the gubmint involved in enforcing the oath. And if it is in their interest to enforce the oath; they will. With guns if necessary.

[–] meekah 1 points 2 years ago

"gubmint" lol

[–] Pixelologist 2 points 2 years ago

No, baby jesus will come down and bitch slap you. Better not press your luck.

[–] tallwookie 0 points 2 years ago

yeah, because the invisible sky father will smite you irregardless of your beliefs