system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do high high court government positions (President, Supreme Court Justices, and etc) get sworn in on a bible when we have separation of church and state?
gpt
There is no requirement that any elected office be sworn in using a Bible. The only requirement is that the official entering office take the oath.

Many people for personal or political reasons will use a Bible, placing their left hand on it, which is supposed to mean that they are swearing not only by the laws of the country but by their own religious convictions.

However, it's not a requirement and people have been sworn in using the Muslim Koran, the Jewish Torah, or nothing at all, although not at the highest levels of US elected office which historically has been dominated by white Christian males.

Also, it should be noted that officials elected to Congress do not take their oath on *any* holy book, but do so *en masse* in a group. The swearing-in photographs you sometimes see are just photo-ops, not the actual swearing in ceremony, and are purely symbolic.