reply to post by OldThinker
moo, love you bro....but you blew off the data.... here's some more....
Well I don't know you well enough to love you back OT but as we're opposite sides of the Atlantic I can't imagine you stalking me in the
foreseeable future, so I'll continue our polite debate.
No I didn't blow off the data I responded to a portion which I note you did not counter. The never ending supply of data obfuscates your discussion
topic (not unusual for xtianity to over complicate the very simple) thread discussion.
1 A moments silence in schools and praying in schools are 2 completely different things.
2 The allegation is that with the demise of praying to imaginary deities in schools (and in life in general) there has been a marked decline in moral
values an increase in antisocial behavior and some negative effects from unsuppressed sexual awareness.
Statistics (if any) in relation to misogyny or sexual discrimination whether increase or decrease have not been considered by you I note.
3 We send our children to school to get an education (there seems to be varying opinions of how this is defined)
"not to learn someone else s
moral values" although being aware of others moral values has its' merits.
The bulk of educational process involves interaction with others, and gathering and considering factual information.
4 The bulk of factual information gathered at schools is passed on as a result of human reasoning,critical thinking and the scientific process
(hopefully).
5 Praying to deities (I take it we are discussing the yahwehjesus god) runs contrary to reasoning,critical thinking, and the scientific process.
6 We not only accept the scientific process and reasoning used at schools, but we ask our children to do so and to utilize it themselves.
7 Religion requires the student to suspend critical thinking and reject science in favour of "Faith" IE accepting a viewpoint without evidence as
fact.
8
And here's the important bit-
[
i] There is no peer reviewed scientific evidence that praying to a deity has any effect, neither is there any proof of the existence of
deities. Therefore prayer has no place in our schools
Once again OT, please don't respond with endless meaningless bible references. Be courteous enough to respond to the above points.
Let's make this as simple a discussion as possible and come to the obvious conclusion that -
"Praying to imaginary gods has no place in our schools"
and then we can move on to whether our children could benefit from "Periods of silence" and whether there is any testable evidence of said
benefit.
. 
