School Prayer

I have recently found this debate and sought for the opportunity to debate with you. I hope we have a respectable debate in which this is a really heated topic with much conflict(not just verbally) on either end. In this debate I will be the opponent of your statement that school prayer should be allowed. ******************************************************************************************************* Counterargument #1. "In fact, our country was built on Christian/religious principles. ".....yes, but let us dive into it. This statement in its essence is very true, but it is crucial to know that the founders of this nation also believed in the separation of church and state. In fact the Pledge of Allegiance in which almost every school in this nation recites never had the words "under God" in its original version until Congress added it which was very unconstitutional that included that particular statement in 1954. This is the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance - "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Also, in the first amendment it states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Anyone with common sense would definitely say that the government allowing school prayer is favoring "an establishment of religion" in which the constitution says not to do. Your argument also mentions that people of the Christian faith now have to attend private schools for that type of prayer, but the law never prohibits silent praying in which everyone if free to do. Also with a non-official-prayer-zone now everyone must pay a certain price for the luxury of an educational institution that is based on a certain belief. ******************************************************************************************************* Counterargument #2. "[M]orality cannot be correctly taught without religion" , in my opinion that is an immensely subjective statement with many holes in it. In fact, there is a certain organization that is driven to support people that strive to be morally correct without religion which is the American Humanist Association states that... "Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity." This statement is already proof that some people believe that morality can be taught without religion. If school prayer were to be allowed then children would be confused, and teenagers would be outraged of the overly support of another belief from the government, and parents would be enraged of showing indifference of other belief systems. ******************************************************************************************************* Counterargument #3 "[S]chool prayer should be allowed [*removed word*] because the majority of the United States population is religious." The minority should have an opinion too which is why a democracy was made. Although what was mentioned is true, it does not give the government full rights to favor a belief in the slightest. The statistics shown also show a decrease of the Christian population and counting which adds to the fact that one day the Christian population of the United States will be a minority. To put it in perspective, if the government were to start favoring Islam and has a four minute prayer, people of other beliefs would begin to get offended of the biased system. Having a godless system would be at best because it neither supports or criminalize beliefs systems. A sudden remark will spark up such as "Then the godless system will support atheism", but in fact it does not because it never said there was no God(god, or gods...whichever context you want to use it in) in which most atheist believe(the disbelief or lack of belief in gods, god, or God). ******************************************************************************************************* Summary Having a non-official-prayer-zone at schools around the nation will prove beneficial in society as people change and have different beliefs in which they hold dearly. ******************************************************************************************************* Sources -https://ffrf.org... -https://www.law.cornell.edu... -http://americanhumanist.org...