 In an oath a person says, in support of a claim to be telling the truth or to have a sincere and reliable intention to do a certain thing, “I swear to you by …”, naming here something to which he or she is assumed to attach great value, such as God, the Bible, or the memory of a loved one. It is not necessary that the value appealed to involve a code of honor or convention of truth-telling. What is claimed is simply that the speaker’s sincerity in making the present claim is comparable to the sincerity of his or her devotion to the value named. It would cheapen such a value, and hence be incompatible with true devotion to it, to invoke it for personal advantage in support of an insincere claim. Of course, some think that it is incompatible with holding something sacred to invoke it in sup port of any claim, which is why some religions forbid the use of holy texts or the name of God in this way. (Scanlon 1990: 223)