I swear by Almighty God that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence

but they have a selection of holy books at hand, and versions for whatever religious tradition you prefer; ‘I swear by Allah…’ or ‘I swear by Waheguru…’ or ‘I, being one of the people called Quakers, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that…’

I went for the affirmation:

I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence.

… and I couldn’t help feeling that it would make life easier for them if they just used that as the general purpose oath for everyone. I guess religious people aren’t to be trusted unless they fear that God might strike them down.

No, really, I do think this array of oaths is rather admirable as the bureaucratic expression of a tolerant society. It’s just a bit unnecessarily complicated.

We too, have our own day; jealous yet?

Fucking nasty business. Leave people alone.

I’m sorry, but the implications of that statement are kind of sad.

As to “de-conversion” coming from within…

Yes at this stage of the game it would HAVE to wouldn’t it? For it to come from “without” there would need to be an equal and opposite societal pressure which could challenge the centuries-old, ingrained attitudes and traditions almost every culture has in regard to religious faith. Which is to say conversion and de-conversion are not equivalent forces. When one seeks to convert another, one can simply draw-on and refocus a weighty, ancient, multifaceted cultural imperative. When one seeks to de-convert another on the other hand, one must effectively counter all of it. It’s no wonder the stats aren’t high on outside de-conversion, a minority voice has a hard time reaching majority ears.

Many people resist their OWN intuitions and suspicions when it comes to faith, good luck getting anyone to listed you YOURS.

Or so it seems to me at least.

Science and faith however are directly in conflict, as they always have been.

Yes, I agree with that. As I say, I do think that science and atheism are complementary; there’s a natural sympathy between them. But they aren’t the same, I think, and it seems like an important distinction to make.

As for the Supremes, I’m afraid I lost interest soon after reading that Clarence Thomas didn’t talk enough to count.

I just think culturally you would be so foreign that any attempt to cash in on your “superior” knowledge would simply draw the attention of the powerful and thwap! That’d be it.

I completely agree, but also: let’s assume you find some very farsighted king with plenty of resources who is willing to invest in your expertise. How many people, starting with the tools available in the early middle ages, could manage to end up with a steam engine capable of, to keep it simple, grinding corn? I just think it’s much much harder than people think; the steam engine example would require a combination of blacksmithing, metallurgy and engineering, for a start. And then even if you managed, would it actually be any more profitable? Given that iron is so much more expensive, transport costs are so much higher and so on. And what will you use for fuel? Do you know how to make coke? Or are you planning to start up a coal mine?

There must be a few skills that have remained fairly similar; if you were a very skilled sculptor, painter, potter, leatherworker or whatever you might be able to find a job in a local workshop even without much grasp of the language. But the advantage comes from having old knowledge, not modern knowledge.

Entering into the spirit of the thing: if you were going to attempt to make a modest fortune through technology back in the year 1000, if you’re allowed to prepare in advance and you can get to a large town, one possibility might be to learn as much as possible about simple paper-making.

However…

New reality show! Create a tear in the space-time continuum, send 8 ruggedly good looking and utterly narcissistic doofuses through the resultant time rift, and see whose plan results in glory / the least horrible death…