ANNOUNCER: A CNN viewer wants to know: "How are atheists or non-Christian believers sworn into oath in a court of law since the courts use the Bible to swear in witnesses?"</s>CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It's the last four words of the oath that give some people a problem. Federal courts say a person who objects does not have to swear an oath to God. The code of civil procedure provides an alternative. It adds four different words, "under penalty of perjury," as a reminder that there is still a punishment for lying under oath. Judges instruct jurors that the alternative oath is as good as the original. In 1992, a federal court ruled in favor of a Nevada man who protested that the oath violated his beliefs and abridged his First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. And when the law creating the alternative oath was written, it also changed the word "swear" to "state," to head off objections to the notion of swearing.
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