These laws need to be revoked. All citizens should be allowed to hold
any elected or government-sponsored office. So yes, if there is a State
Church as there are in some countries, an atheist should be qualified
to hold the office of chief pontiff or whatever the relevant office is, if
he or she knows enough about the religion. Actual belief should not be
a qualification; knowledge of the subject alone should suffice. All these
laws were designed to exclude “undesirable” people from the political
realm. That is not acceptable in a republic or a democracy where all
persons are considered to have equal rights in the society. It’s high
time we abandoned these blatantly prejudicial laws and the
superstitious practice of swearing on items that have no proven
efficacy in either compelling honesty or in punishing liars.
Extend Religious Exemptions to All People – At present, in the US Army
you can wear a beard and a funny hat of your choice, if it’s because of
your religious practice. Well, if it’s good enough for those guys, why
not anybody? If I want to wear a derby instead of a turban (Sikh) or a
yarmulke (Jew) why not? And the same goes for beards and hair
length. If it’s fine for some soldiers to have these privileges because of
religion, why not extend them to everyone? The same goes for any
exemption from established dress codes given to any persons for
religious reasons.
Also, there is the issue of the conscientious objector. If you want to
get out of military service because you are morally opposed to killing
people, why is this only provable in some countries if you are a
member of a specific religious cult? In the US, the definition of
“Conscientious Objection” used to be: “A firm, fixed, and sincere
objection to participation in war in any form or the bearing of arms, by
reason of religious training and/or belief” (DOD 1300.6) (see more
here). But DOD 1300.6 appears to have been suspended. I haven’t
been able to find the new definition, so if you know it please let me
know.
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