Should Bibles be Allowed in Public Schools

Thank you for your insight and I really appreciate your enthusiasm and passion for this subject matter. I do recognize the broad scope of your original premise and will make an effort to be brief. Having established this, I do feel compelled to address some of the ideas you propose in an effort not to refute the merit of your arguments, but to bring more light to the spirit of philosophical consideration regarding this topic of discussion. First, I would like to address Pro's opening premise "I feel that the government is restricting teens and kids from knowledge. What happened to freedom of religion, is this not the United States of America?" While, I realize the point Pro is trying to make, the premise is over generalizing the government's take, more specifically, the public school system as a governing U.S. agency's take on this matter. If I understand Pro's position clearly, the issue is schools should not prevent students from learning about God while school is in session. I say while school is in session because it is a fallacy to say schools prevent students from learning about God when school is not in session. Having established a schools scope of authority, The problem with schools allowing theology to be taught is two fold. Problem 1: First Amendment to the United States Constitution explicitly forbids this "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" It the most simple term, schools are not allowed to have this kind of authority. It is quite literally unconstitutional. Freedom of religion is not given to us by the U.S. Constitution. This is unfortunately a popular myth. Freedom of religion is a natural right, an unalienable right as said best in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" The First Amendment does not grant me freedom of religion, it restricts the U.S. Government's authority to take this right away from me. In short, they can not tell me what God to believe, by what name I refer to God or by what religion I must worship God. Nor can they tell me I must believe in God(s) or practice a faith. Learning about God in a public school is a form of respecting the establishment of religion. By proxy, it would be state sponsored, and therefore a violation or restriction of my unalienable right to freedom (liberty) of religion (life & pursuit of happiness). Point 2: Public schools do not have the time or resources to cater to all religions considering the primary task at hand. The purpose of K-12 education is to fulfill specific social obligations to transfer the wealth of human knowledge to all our children. The goal of our public system is to allow every child to develop his/her talent, and bring each one of them into full membership in our economic, cultural, and social national community. This includes music, the arts, sports, physical and mental play, communication and expression. We prepare children to become active contributors to our culture and full participants in our democratic institutions. Because of the diversity in religious differences and the importance these differences mean to individual members of the community. It is unreasonable to think a single organization like a public school could do a better job of teaching an acceptable and proper message about God than a church dedicated to this subject matter could do. Any attempt to do this would distract from a schools core curriculum. In summary, while I believe my opponent should be able to freely speak his/her mind in a public school as a student. I would encourage he/her, and like minded individuals to recognize our system was set up to be as fair and inclusive as possible. While I share the same faith in God Pro has, I recognize the potential dangers of allowing any governing authority to make decisions about God. In closing, my debate friend correctly stated, "Unfortunately, we live in a sinful world and everyone has their different logic of beliefs." It is exactly for this reason I believe a secular government in a sinful world is so important. Governments have always proved to be poor moral authoritarians. This was particularly true when government and religion are one in the same as persecution is rampant... This however, is a topic for another debate. Thank you for your time and consideration my friend.