why do we raise our right hand and not our left to take and oath?
108270
Because most people are right handed and your right hand is more away from you heart so as to let your brain make your decision, not your heart.May God bless......
1000694
Just to expand on what has already been written, in a Democracy, the majority rules. If the majority decides that all left handed people should be enslaved, then they will be. This is what James Madison called a Mobocracy. Our country was founded as a Republic. Another aspect of a republic not mentioned in previous answers is the idea that the minority is spared from the tyranny of the majority. Just because the majority of people may want something doesn't necessarily make it right. Take slavery in the US for example. Or denying women the right to vote. I suppose Democracy can be too dangerous to those who do not fit in the standard social/economic profile of the time.
817308
When you extend your right hand toward someone facing you, it is on their left side. Perhaps when your father was holding something in his left hand and extended it to you, he was typically putting it in your right hand. Thus you were prone to use your right hand more. Similarly, if you were holding items in your dominant hand (right) and extending it forward to your son, it would go to his left hand.\n\nHandedness can be influenced by environment. For instance, only letting a child use an implement in their right (or left) hand will make them right (or left) handeded. So the natural tendency to extend something straight ahead when facing a child will put the item in their opposite side hand.
1047430
Why should one form dominate?  How dull.  \n\nNo. A handshake can be rude, offensive, intrusive, and an excellent way to transmit disease.  Even in culture like the US where a handshake is common, few know how, when and who may correctly offer, and who must wait to be offered.\n\nI think bowing would be an excellent choice, but forcing homogeneity is to cause serious harm.\n\nLyotard has a lot to say on the negative ideal of consensus and its negative aspects.
1094854
i think sienfeild asked this question. im a swithcer but i start on the right
269699
They used thier hand!! Where I was staying in South india I had to use my hand for two months, eewwwww.  They only use thier left hand though, that's why they eat and shake hands with thier right hand.\n\nA large part od the world does not produce or use paper products and use a bucket of water and a hand to wipe.
1167633
Left handed people use the right side of their brain to perform tasks such as writing, because the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body.\n\nI've heard that some, but not all, left handed people have their speech centers in different locations than most right handed people.\n\nIf a person switches their hand of dominance, for example, a left handed person starts writing with their right hand, they will eventually use both sides of their brain to perform this task.
766102
=those that can use both hands equally will get along better if they were to loose the use of their dominant hand.  My guess of the two would be right handed because that is left brain controlled.
262671
I think nowadays it's just good manners to do so.\n\nDragging up from the deepest corners of my memory, I have a feeling that the origin of the handshake was that it showed your enemy you were unarmed....most people being right handed....\n\nI much prefer a person with a firm handshake than one whose handshake can be likened to a limp fish....not nice at all.
494058
I do both - some times the occassion calls for me to sign as an individual apart from my husband - otherwise, I and my husband are of one flesh and therefore I have no problem being Mrs. D.M.H.  and he has said it wouldn't bother him to sign as Mr. D.P.H. because he feels we are of one flesh as well. There was a time when the signet (signature) had to be physically handed down as it was usually a ring or medallion and as marriages were arranged it was usually handed to the first born son - but then as we modernized our ways it became more common for the man to pass the signet to his wife and during WWII when it was necessary for women to enter the workforce to meet the demands of the military, there was no man to receive a signet from and women began to use their own - be it their husbands name or their own. Social Security made it even easier for a woman to use her own signet but take note; Even today it is of more benefit if seeking government Social Security that you have a male spouse who you've been married to at least ten years.  I learned this in acquiring disability.  I didn't have one so I could only draw a portion of what I should have been alloted, so that the other portion could be drawn for my son.  Had I had a marriage of ten years I could have drawn twice what I do.  So there is still a set of double standards, and that is just what it is, a set of double standards - look at Hillary Rodham Clinton - which name really gives her the clout she has? You have posed a most excellent question - not often found on this forum!! Thank you.
223607
People who are left-handed are more dextrous with their left hand than with their right hand: they will probably also use their left hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. Writing is not as good an indicater of handedness as it might seem, because many people who write with their right hand use their left for everything else.\n\n\nCauses of left-handedness\n\nNo one knows for certain why the human population is right-handed-dominant, but a number of theories have been proposed.\n\n\nEvolutionary theories: The warrior and his shield\n\nThis theory attempts to explain left-handedness by the position of a warrior's shield and his heart. Basically, since the heart is on the left side of the body, a warrior holding his shield with his left hand would be better able to protect his heart than if he held it with his right. Thus, a greater mortality of left-handers would explain the prevalence of right-handedness today.\n\n \nThe heart is not that far off center. While it is on the left side of the body, it is still fairly central in location. Protecting it with a shield would only result in a weak selective pressure, and there have not been enough generations since the bronze age. \n\n  \nIt predicts that more men would be right-handed than women. However, data indicates that more males are left-handed than females. \nAnalysis of ancient cave paintings indicate that humanity was right-handed long before the bronze age. \n\nBrain hemisphere division of labour\n\nThis is the most commonly accepted theory of handedness. The premise of this theory is that since both speaking and handiwork require fine motor skills, having one hemisphere of the brain do both would be more efficient than having it divided up. And since in most people, the left side of the brain controls speaking, right-handedness would prevail. It also predicts that left-handed people would have a reversed brain division of labour. Lastly, since other primates do not have a spoken language (at least of the type we have) there would be no stimulus for right-handed preference among them, and that is true.\n\n\nEnvironmental theories\n\nBirth stress \n\nLeft-handed people cringe at this theory, because its basic premise is that left-handedness is due to brain damage during the birth process. Unfortunately, some statistics do back this theory up.\n\nDifficult or stressful births happen far more commonly among babies who grow up to be left-handed or ambidextrous. Birth stress is also associated with a number of birth defects and complications, including cerebral palsy and autism.\n\n Throughout history and throughout the world, the level of medicine and technology to assist with childbirth has improved. In spite of that, the proportion of left-handed people has not decreased. (In a sense, it has increased because more people see left-handedness as the benign trait it is.) \n\nParental pressure\nThis theory explains right-handed dominance by claiming that since the parents who raised us are mostly right-handed, we came to be mostly right-handed and so on.
986037
*raises the left hand up *\n\nhehe :)
1071637
Is it ever "right?"  Unfortunately, there are so many conflicts over what is "right."  It's often folks on the "right" who feel they have the "right."  They often maintain that they're on the side of "right," or on the "right" side.  But, that doesn't mean that the "right" folks are in charge, like when the folks on the "right" take charge.  But, without "right," what's "left?"  Then what's "left" can be "right" and what's "right" can be wrong. \n\nAh, I've been in the right place, but I must have made a wrong turn...
192182
It's because left and right are relative terms, while up and down refer more to absolutes.  If were facing east looking into a mirror, our right hand would be south, and our left hand north.  Referred to north and south, there is no inversion--move your "north hand" and the image's "north hand" moves; move your south hand and the images south hand moves.  The problem is that left/right is a special sort of orientation that is centered from ourselves and distinguishes from two symmetrical sides of ourselves.  You right hand looks like the reflection of you left hand, but when you look at the reflection of your left hand, that reflect is still on *your* left.  If you imagine that the image reflected is some different person, and you try to set up a left/right orientation with resepct to the person in the mirror, it will be backwards--but that's only because it is erroneous to think that the reflection of your right hand is your reflection's left hand.  It isn't; it just looks like a left hand because our bodies display left/right symmetry.  If your head looked like the mirror image of your feet, you might make the same mistake, but the body does not display any manner of top/bottom symmetry.
190154
No God Said That , He Said Dont Let The Right Know what the left is doing ! its a figure of speach and you must have a left, and a right, hand to do this
700704
No dude.  Its the right to bear arms.  You have the right to hang bear arms over your mantle.  Why does everyone confuse this?
1059116
I'm American and do it the traditional way.\n\nI'm extaordinarily gifted.  It evidently takes alot of skill to raise a fork to your mouth with your left hand.  Either that, or I'm a fatty that doesn't want to take the extra time to switch hands.  You decide.