Prayer in Schools

Thank you for your response. The link I provided was intended to highlight the fact that only a '.com' address could be found to support that prayer in schools have been affected by government - It appears that this message was missed. However your response has revealed that was not what you were debating upon, please disregard that information. Also, I feel I must remonstrate my opponent slightly for the citation provided - From the first line, it is very obvious that the entire purpose of the documentation is to prove the Pros argument, with very little to no actual evidence of the claim (Apart from a "As stated in X document" - or "In a speech in this period", These are not unbiased sources that are being used to support your claim - they are the basis of your debate... For future reference (I apologise if this appears as a 'grill' - I intend this so that future debates we may have are much more enjoyable and both parties gain perspective of the opposing field) - The purpose of a debate is to use the information you have found, and to build that into an argument to support your views - Citations are intended to be used to prove that you are not just pulling facts out of thin air, and are not intended to be the basis of your argument (i.e. Because X site says so, that is why you think Y is happening.) " I would like it noted that I am saying that I know that prayer is allowed in schools, and that as of right now prayer is not banned. This is not what I am fighting against. What I am fighting for is the freedom to pray more freely in schools. I have read countless times about someone receiving detention for praying in a public school, and I myself have watched someone almost get suspended for having a bible in their locker. It is coming to a point where schools are not just neutral to all religions, but anti-Christian." I am confused here - Is the debate topic here the prayer in schools, or are we debating on why schools do not have enough Christian prayer? For context, Prayer is defined as : "Prayer noun a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity." This is an unbiased word, it represents the form of any religion and their way of celebrating/respecting their beliefs - it can be in the form of palms together communion to the Christian god, to the physical ceremony/dances of a more pagan deity. Some forms of prayer take the form of self-hurt and self-mutilation, but they are more for negative or 'evil' aspects of religion. Christian prayer is Christian - Muslim prayer is Muslim. Prayer as a word, stands for religion in an open and unbiased way. "Another point I would like to address is that prayer has been a part of America from the day it was discovered. One of the biggest things that Americans wanted while they fought for their freedom was to have the freedom of religion." I would like to point that sweeping statements such as this do not sway the arguments you have raised - I can guarantee without evidence, that that prayer was not a part of America on the day it was discovered. The explorer who found the land mass that was later named as "New England" (Later to be declared as the United States of America) was indeed Christian (Coming from a Anglo-Saxon culture, the Majority of the population were Christian, or Protestant.), however this does not mean that the country that was raised, was raised due to the fact that they were religious. Alternatively, if perhaps you meant the day that America was 'founded' - i.e the Declaration of Independence, This is not the document that founded the government - it was actually the written constitution, which has been split from a religious state into as you say "A Society which has Freedom to Religion". Now, I have a point that I would like for you to Acknowledge or provide a counter argument in your next round - You understand that a large population of America is considered Christian, In which way has this cessation of mandatory prayers for primary religions caused such a problem? To demonstrate, please see a portion from the link you provided : "10) To forbid the majority the right to pray because the minority object, is to impose the irreligion of the minority on the religious majority. Forbidding prayer in schools, which a three-quarters majority of Americans favors, is the tyranny of the minority. It is minority rule, not democracy. Why should an irreligious minority dictate what the majority can do? The majority wishes to preserve our moral and spiritual values and, thus, our good nation." Whilst this can be true - As in the majority being cowed by the minority, by methods such as guilt, legislation, etc. - There is nothing at all being used to hinder the 'majority' the claims raised in that website are unfounded and a rather meek attempt at trying to create a victim within an inherently equal system. Moral question. Twice now you have raised that prayer will lead to a more moral human being - and followed that up with statistics (From the single citation you provided) indicating that since decline of Christian prayer in schools, a whole series of other issues have inflated. By such logic that you have provided here, I could counter-argue that it is in fact the decline of VCR devices that have caused this increase in Crime and social issues. Of course I am not, however using one fact from something that is caused by many, MANY causes - cannot even begin to explain why rises in divorce, suicide and crime have occurred. As another example to what I mean with the above - It is almost like saying you crashed your car because of global warming. In Summation : Currently there are no laws or regulations that can stop a person from practicing their religious beliefs (Barring if their prayers affect their studies). If anyone is hindered in their religious 'duties', then they actually have avenues to follow to reprimand the organisation that caused this. People cannot receive detention and suspension simply for religious means, unless those means were to break the 'rules' of the Public schools - such as preaching in class to try and 'convert' fellow classmates. By this information, I still stand that Prayer is allowed in school, and my position in this debate has not been affected. Thank you for reading this, I look forward to your reply.