Debate: Should School Prayer Be Allowed In Schools?
Side: No

My argument doesn’t assert the bible is an authority to affect the policy of public schoolsIt absolutely does. The question is "Should school prayer be allowed in schools". This is a question of school policy in general, which includes public school policy. Your answer is that it should not, and the reason you give is that the bible instructs Christians to pray privately. Thus, you are suggesting that a biblical command should dictate public school policy; ie, that school prayer should not be allowed on the grounds that public prayer is prohibited by the bible.The primary fallacy of your argument is evidenced in the following paragraph.You must stop with the red-herring arguments. The argument you are attempting to advance is not strictly limited to the terms of the question. You’ve assumed that the question implies “public”, school “policy” regarding prayer. Neither ‘policy’ nor ‘public’ is expressed in the question. Yet, if I were to play your game, I could argue that the question is really about the Pope’s policy regarding prayer in public schools, private schools, military schools, Christian schools, and of when it is acceptable and when it is not acceptable. But, the nature of this question, which is very generic and not at all specific, distributed, and qualified, lends itself to such red-herrings. Now, consequently, we are debating separate questions. And because of such there is no necessity on my behalf to validate my argument or invalidate your argument for our arguments are, well, answering two different questions. However...Are you suggesting that public school policy should dictate Christian behavior regarding prayer?I am not suggesting that school policy should dictate behavior regarding prayer at all, save only that they should prohibit it when it directly interferes with the educational activities of the school.This response demonstrates the fallacies of self-refutation and inconsistency.You assert that school policy should not dictate Christian behavior regarding prayer, at all, which is a universal predication. Then in your next sentence you quickly establish an exception to the universal predication. Those two sentences contradict each other. Agreed!Would it bother you if Christians refused to pray in school?No. If you had bothered to read my post for content, you would have seen that I am against enforced prayer, but for allowed prayer. You seem unable to distinguish between the two.Again, your argument is evidencing ignoratio elenchi. You asserted no position that is applicable to a Christian’s refusal to prayer in school. From whom have you derived the just authority to determine the place of prayer of 300+religions?I have no such authority, nor have I claimed such. I am speaking to a "should", not a "must", and my position is precisely that schools shouldn't be determining this. That is, that the only time a school should be restricting prayer is when that prayer is directly interfering with education which is the school's mandate.Can you identify the fallacies of this paragraph? Consider this rebuttal an exercise in logic; it is not a rebuttal that validates my argument.