religious symbolism should be removed from America's courtrooms

First I shall begin by saying I am a fatalist (I believe in fate, and so like you I disbelieve in a God of any kind). Nonetheless, I see absolutely no harm in involving religion in the courtroom and I believe I have an extremely valid reason for this. Of course it can be irritating to an atheist to have to fake belief in something to merely partake in a court-case. Yet, the court is not commanding one to say that they are Christian, merely commanding to accept the fact that the American Law is based on the Christian faith. The ten commandments are in fact linked to laws. ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' Well, if you have a God before the christian one then is it that much of an effort merely to abide by a false statement of belief to proceed with the case of bringing justice? I mean, if you want to prosecute a murderer the least of your worries should be the God you have to pretend to believe in in order to bring such a justice. TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.' Well, I do not quite understand this commandment and therefore do not see any issue with having it in a courtroom, one is unlikely going to carve an image of what is in heaven or hell in a court case... THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' This is actually applicable to both muslims Jews and any religious person (and to an atheist is of no offence or relevance). This makes everyone happy, I mean it doesn't make atheists sad in any way. FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' You aren't exactly going to be requested to bring up the date of sabbath day in a court case so merely having this up on the wall of a courtroom is not offensive at all. FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' Now unless the court-case is with a parent, I see no reason for this not to be a very applicable and well-founded commandment to have in a court of justice. SIX: 'You shall not murder.' This is a law. It would be on the courtroom wall of an atheist too. SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' Although in USA this is not a law, it's also a good value to have. I don't think anyone on earth (even people who cheat) would be offende by this statement on the wall of a court. EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' This is a law. It would be on the courtroom wall of an atheist too. NINE: 'You shall not pass false testimony' Lying in a courtroom defeats the very ideal of court and justice and therefore is a very essential statement to be brought into a courtroom. TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.' This is basically about theft and to be honest theft is a crime. So as far as the ten commandments go I see no reason for them to cause major offense in terms of affecting a court case involving an atheist, muslim, jew, buddhist or any other religion. Therefore, I stand against the motion that involving Christian ideals in a courtroom should be abolished. You bring up swearing on the bible, and how this is contradicting the fact that we separated Church from State. Although this is a viable view, is it not merely making one promise to tell the truth in the courtroom? Would swearing on a Qur'an, a Torah (Jewish holy book) or even swearing on the laws of science be the same concept? In conclusion, the courts of today do accomodate for people of all walks of life, they simply have roots and heritage and I see no reason to force them to abandon their Christian roots since I see no direct offence or hindrance in terms of an atheists' functioning in the courtroom nor the atheists' right to express their view on the proposed crime.