Prayer in School/

I hear that the Supreme Court has disallowed prayer in school. All that ended, was organized prayer as led by a teacher, principal or directed by the school. The problem before the Court rulings dealing with organized prayer in schools was that students were required or pressured to participate in prayer not of their religion, if they had a religion. No government or school board committee has the right to teach a certain religious view that the parents of those students might disagree with. Those that advocate organized prayer back in public schools state students wouldn’t be forced to pray but ironically it was some of those condemned church/state court decisions from the 1940s through 1960s that dealt with children forced to pray or pressured to pray by teachers and the school. While the phrase “separation of church and state” does not in fact appear in our Constitution it was not penned though by judges as some believe, though it was referenced by judges in later court cases. It was in a letter written by President Jefferson, after consultation with advisers, on the ideal that government and religion should have separation between them. Now, President Jefferson was not a signer to the Constitutional Convention but James Madison not only was but is considered to be the Father of the Constitution and wrote very similar sentiments. Mr. Madison wrote in a letter to Edward Livingston in 1822, “Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.” In an 1819 letter to Gene Garman, “The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of Church and State.” As a nonbeliever, like most nonbelievers, I am not offended by people praying in public buildings. I just don’t want the government organizing prayer or religious exercises. That is all. I am not miserable because I don’t believe in God or life after death. Other people have those beliefs and that is fine. Atheists are not unhappy and wretched with misery. I heard a Christian state once why do nonbelievers believe in atoms but not God when they cannot see neither. Well, an atom is observed scientifically through various experiments that have been repeated many, many numerous times. There is conclusive scientific evidence that atoms do exist. If they did not, then nuclear energy or nuclear bombs would not work at all let alone other advanced technology. That a God is necessary for the universe leaves God unexplained and while I understand Christians say God doesn’t need a cause that just isn’t a sufficient explanation for nonbelievers. Why the universe needs a cause but a cause we can’t observe doesn’t need a cause doesn’t make sense to me. An explanation that God is immaterial doesn’t make.


Self styled expert on atheists, who knows nothing about the topic-nothing new

After reading Joel Hendon’s letter, I am of the impression that he knows less about atheists and atheism then I do about quantum mechanics. At least he didn’t say atheists worship Satan. Atheists do not fear the moral and ethical rules of the bible. Some they agree with. Rules against stealing and murder make sense because they are based on not harming others. Atheists are not rejecting the bible as true because they are afraid to follow those rules but because they simply have no more belief in the bible then Mr. Hendon has in the Qaran. Does Mr. Hendon reject the Qaran because he is afraid of following the moral and ethical rules of Allah? How about those of Hinduism? I doubt it. In fact atheists according to at least one survey by the Federal Bureau of Prisons are less represented in prisons then they are in the general population. If atheists fear the “tough” rules of the bible, then why aren’t they out committing crimes? The bible can give a moral sense but so can non religious sources. Atheists don’t believe in “nothing” but have an ethical system whose precepts are built on reason and empathy and not faith. Anyway the laws/rules of the Christian deity or any other God can’t be based on him because if they are they are either his whims or are above him. If the latter then logic/reasoning can find those same moral rules. I do not fear the bible Mr. Hendon. I do not believe it is true and I do not believe it is the foundation of a moral sense. But unlike you I do not give false motives to people who don’t believe like me.