I found this, and thought it was interesting.
Sara Robinson
John McWhorter points out that our swearing prohibition comes down from the age before mass literacy, when almost no agreements were written down. Most contracts were verbal, usually executed in the form of oaths solemnly sworn before God and official witnesses. Our marriage vows are about the only remaining vestige of this; but for much of history, these verbal promises were the main way people did business. When nobody can write, your word has to be your bond.
People who threw God's name around "in vain" (meaning, swore to God casually, without legal intent or spiritual seriousness) were diluting the power that backed those critical promises on which people's lives and fortunes hung. It was a sign that they took their oaths casually, and thus probably should not be trusted with anything of value. That's why "swearing" was considered to be a grave offense against civilization.
Our horror at swearing, and especially invoking God and Jesus in swears, faded as we started putting contracts in writing, and entrusted their enforcement to more earthly powers. At that point, our profanity repertoire started focusing on sex and excretion instead.
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