Should religious people be excluded from Jury duty?

Question

It's clear that their critical thinking is seriously impaired, believing in flying bodies going to heaven, virgin births and all sorts of senseless drivel. Remember if you ever need a jury tell your lawyer to exclude them.

Answer 1

Yes they should. Schizoid delusional mental disorder is a good reason for exclusion of Jury duty.

Answer 2

No, you are tried by a jury of your peers. Each citizen has the right to serve on jury duty. Remember also that Christians may not be prejudice against a certain race whereas someone who is not Christian could be.. We have good sense and believe in fair judgements. Stay out of trouble and you won't have to worry about it.

Answer 3

My main issue and concern with religious people on the jury is whether they will do their judgement based on the law or on their stone age concepts of morality. I mean the govt is just finally getting some of that crap out of the law,such as getting rid of sodomy laws in some states,so do we really need someone bringing these prejudices into the jury room. Obviously you can't keep out all religious people since many people believe in god and such,but you can at least make an effort to exclude those who can be identified as zealots,and it's really not that hard to expose that sort of thinking with some careful questioning. Religious zealots are very inept when it comes to hiding their beliefs and prejudices since they are so eager to judge the whole world it's easy to make them expose their true nature.

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Answer 4

I'm an Atheist, but I'm not so sure intelligence has anything to do with the belief-system of religious people. Would you call someone unintelligent, every time they fall head-over-heels for someone in love? Faith is like love, it renders people irrational and illogical; in this state, you "lose your senses."

Thus, it would only matter that people are religious or not, if the case they were going to evaluate was in any way relevant to their religious beliefs.

If not, religious people are almost just as intelligent as irreligious people, but the difference isn't even that important.

Answer 5

The mentality and maturity of your questions and answers lately is that of a 5 year old child who gets pissed because he has to go to bed at a certain time.

It's almost as if your crying out for help. What did the big bad Christians do to you to force you to use such childish rhetoric to slander them?

Come on we are all friends here and will help you work through this problem.

Answer 6

You're describing a huge portion of the (assuming a US Court) American population, which may limit you to a completely culturally-foreign jury, which too may work against you. The best thing is to avoid anything the masses wouldn't approve. When in Rome...

Answer 7

I think it's more important to ask a series of questions from the show Are You As Smart as a 5th grader.

Unfortuantely if you did, most jury boxes would be empty, be they religious or not.

Answer 8

Since most people are theists, and they are granted a jury of their peers, then I must disagree. Besides, people are pre-screened first, not to see whether they are religious or not, but whether they hold prejudices or not.

Answer 9

No. They will be screened like all other potential jurors and excluded if they do not meet the criteria the attorneys are looking for. Being religious does not mean you cannot think rationally.

Answer 10

But all people, including religious people, are guaranteed a jury of their peers.