View from the Foot of the Tower: The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

On my blog recently there has been a discussion about whether a court should give greater weight to the evidence of someone who is devoutly religious because they are more likely to take the oath seriously. This article considers whether that is the case and the extent to which the court considers character when weighing evidence.

There’s some sense in the original assertion – if a person really believes that God is watching and will know if they are lying are they more likely to give honest answers?

[That’s the whole basis of Trial by Ingestion – one of the trial by ordeals of the Middle Ages. The suspect / witness was given dry bread and cheese blessed by a Priest and if they choked whilst eating them then they were lying and guilty. To our modern eyes this seems like a deeply unsophisticated method but it actually worked in those times because most people believed that God...

Read the full article here.