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"Anyone who says they don't judge someone by their appearance is a liar."
"in my head I told her to F*ck You"
That's HUMAN NATURE.
And also human nature is for our feelings in our hearts and minds to show in our body language and our decisions, even if only sub-consciously.
Symbols evoke emotions -sometimes very strong emotions- and we can't help reacting to them, even if only sub-consciously. And those emotions, even if only sub-consciously, are likely to show to others. And that affects the thoughts and opinions and reactions of those others about us.
HUMAN NATURE. It's inter-action between humans and we can't prevent it if we tried. Even symbols we may not have anything against we may still react against, perhaps because of how that symbol is being worn or used.
And imo, everyone's replies (and I agree with them all) and my own blathering on in this post, is EXACTLY why the 10 Commandments, or any other personal beliefs, should not be displayed in courtrooms.
The 10 Cs are a symbol, and as a symbol they evoke emotions, which can be very strong. And those emotions, even if only sub-consciously, are likely to show to others. And that affects the thoughts and opinions and reactions of others towards us.
I believe in the 10 Cs; it's not what they SAY that affects me negatively...it's what they, to me, REPRESENT, right or wrong, at least currently: Public religion. Republicans. Iraq war=crusade. Hate-spewing "Christians". I can't help it; that all hits me when I see a religious display in public. It's not the display, it's the negative thoughts it brings to my mind in connection with "public" religion.
Seeing my judge's 10 Cs hanging on his courtroom wall would affect my emotions. I can't help it. Rushing into my brain would be iraqcrusadedeathdestructionliesbushrepublicansfallwellphelps...all negative emotions, even though I don't feel negatively at all towards the Ten Commandments themselves.
But by affecting my emotions, my body language and demeanor and tone of voice are affected. "Is this judge one of those 'rightwingnut religious fanatic bush-bot hate-spewing "christian" ann-coulter loving warmongering I lost 18 months of life I can never spend together with my husband because he was in Iraq because of warmongering religious fanatics my God is bigger than your God' bastards?"
And I'm not an athiest or a "invade their countries, kill their leaders & convert them all to christianity" muslim! I can't even imagine the negative emotions such a symbol if I had that added to my load; "there are Americans who would kill me if they could get away with it just because my religion is muslim and theirs is the one represented by that hanging on the wall". YIKES I'd be a shivering basketcase the minute I saw the 10 Cs hanging in the judge's courtroom, lol!
And my being uncomfortable and nervous and my not looking him in his eyes because I'm wondering if he is a religious nut and if he is I hate him for it and can he tell I'm not a religious nut and we all know religious nuts HATE us non-religious nuts ohGodIamsodoomed!!!...
...will my body language, affected by all these emotions & thoughts churning through my head, give him the impression, even if sub-consciously, that I have something to hide? Feel guilty? Am guilty?
And if so, which is quite possible, how will it affect his legal judgement of me in areas judgement must be used rather than rock-solid evidence? How about sentencing, where there is judge's descretion that can be a huge range, depending if the judge "believes" the person is remorsefull or not, etc.
We all react emotionally to symbols, especially powerful ones, and our emotions affect our behaviour; we all pre-judge by appearances, such as a person's behaviour, even judges...the last thing we should be doing is adding symbols that evoke emotions into a legal process that is supposed to be impartial and not based on emotions as far as possible.
All only in me own opinion, of course! :D
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