School Prayer

Thanks for debating with me. I have every intention of being respectful. Response to 1st Counterargument: There is nothing unconstitutional about including the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. It would only be unconstitutional if people were forced to say it. As for the first amendment, I agree with what you are saying. I do not believe government should make a law respecting an establishment of religion. But our government leaders are allowed to favor a religion. They just can't make laws about the religion they favor. And remember, if government were to not allow school prayer, they would have to make a law about it. And that is unconstitutional according to the 1st amendment as you have already pointed out. As for Christians attending private schools, they have to do this in order to hear about God at all. But on the other hand it seems crazy that the majority of the student population (who are Christians) have to attend private schools to hear public prayer when they are the majority. Instead of this nonsense, send the minority to private schools if they don't want to hear prayer. Response to 2nd Counterargument: The reason you provided for people being moral was addresses in the first round. Your quote from the American Humanist Association basically states that people are moral to benefit society. As I have already discussed, benefiting society is part of what it means to be moral. The question still remains. Why be moral? Or why benefit society? They are the same question. Religion provides the only reasons to be moral as mentioned already. Even the greatest atheists of all time recognize this. Friedrich Nietzsche denied the existence of morality because he realized it could only exist if a God did. See his work "The Antichrist" for details. Some people do believe that morality can be taught without religion. They are mistaken. No one can provide a reason to be moral unless they are religious. And what evidence do you have that children would be confused? 70% of the United States is Christian and they don't seem to be confused. Also, I am pretty sure that most parents would be delighted to learn that their children have reasons to be moral. Response to 3rd Counterargument: I agree that the minority should have an opinion. Nevertheless it shouldn't be the opinion that controls the education system while most of the people that attend schools are Christian. The minority should create their own private schools. Not the other way around. Not sure if you can prove that Christians will one day be in the minority. But as of right now they are in the majority and their opinion should be the dominant one. As for the government, they shouldn't have any say about it. The federal government has no power to get involved with the public/private education system whatsoever. My point was about the fact that our government leaders set a precedent of religious principles/school prayer and therefore it should inspire the people of the United States to do the same. Let me make myself clear. Government should not make laws about religion or about education. But it sure is allowed to encourage these principles and it has. Our nation is a Christian nation as of right now and it has been for the past two hundred and more years. It is okay for our government's leaders to favor Christianity regardless if people get offended (why would then get offended?). They have done so and will hopefully continue to do so.