REGLION SHOULD BE BROUGHT BACK TO THE SCHOOLS!!!!!

Hi there Jazzyfizzle, let's see how this goes =D In any discussion of what should be done in American schools, it's obvious what we're inherently valuing, and this is a good education for our students. If my opponent can prove that bringing religion into schools would be a good thing for studnets then she will win the debate. However, if I can prove that standards of education and the lives of students would be best served by a secular separation of church and school then we will be forced to vote Con. My opponent's argument is semi-coherent and more like a rant than anything else. Despite that, I'll try to address what she's saying to the best of my abilities, and I will also present various arguments that argue the opposite. My opponent says "IF CHRISTIANITY WAS BOUGHT BACK TO THE SCHOOL SYSTEM THEN IT WOULD BE BETTER OFF . . . IF REGLION WAS BOUGHT IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM THEN ,MANY OF THE PROMBLEMS WOULD NOT BE THEIR." It's hard to rebut something like this, largely because there's absolutely no substance. Not only does Jazzy have no evidence to back up her claims, she has no argument as to why schools would be better off with religion. From what I could translate from her pidgin english, it seems that she's saying that various problems in society (a nebulous undefined concept) might be solved if we promoted religious study in schools. This is false, and in fact the opposite is true. As a whole, religion promotes close-mindedness, bigotry, and prejudice. It creates an "us" and a "them." It promotes the notion that you are right and they are wrong; you are going to heaven and they are not. It would stifle freedom of expression and of thought. And for the government to teach religion in public schools would be for the government to endorse a specific way of thinking while silencing others. This is dangerous for a number of reasons. In "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill breaks it down: "Not the violent conflict between parts of the truth, but the quiet suppression of half of it, is the formidable evil; there is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides; it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the effect of truth, by being exaggerated info falsehood. . . . If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility." I don't even need to say it, but to promote religious education in schools would be to violate the 1st Amendment, which allows the free practice of all beliefs and ideas: it is the not the job of the government to tell us which ideas are wrong and which are right. My opponent finishes her case with this: "I UNDERSTAND THE MANY REGLION BELIEFS,BUT IF THATS THE CASE THEN THE SCHOOLS SHOULD BE DIVIDED BY REGLIONS THEN...I THINK THAT IT WOULD BE BETTER OFF." It's a surprisingly complex idea coming from Jazzy,and I have to admit I was impressed. Sadly, it's a ludicrous suggestion. What it does is promote balkanization and fragmentation. It undermines unity, it breaks America into a nation of tightly closed religious sects that only go to schools that teach what they want to hear. This sort of close-mindedness is the reason America has so many societal ills. To support Jazzy is to accept this; and in the end, the groups that would be hurt most by this fragmentation of education would be the students themselves, who would not be exposed to those who think differently, speak differently, and look differently. The students who would be spoonfed religious prattle would be those affected most. For all these reasons, I urge you to vote Con. Thank you =D ~Aietius