Why don atheists want prayer in school or other public places?
First of all, I must qualify that I don’t know of ANYONE who doesn’t want prayer in school or public places. You are quite free to personally pray any time you like (so long as it doesn’t disrupt class, etc). I don’t care if individual students pray between every single class and all through lunch time. It is ORGANIZED prayer that is the issue. On to your question…For the same reason that Christians aren’t real open to the idea of praying to Satan, or making a daily statement “there are no gods at all” in schools or public places. It isn’t their belief, and it really isn’t up to the government to endorse or prefer belief over non-belief, or one belief over another. Now, I’d be all for including all forms of belief and nonbelief in public prayers. So, one day let’s pray to the Father in heaven, the next the Mother, throw in Krishna, Kali, Zeus, and Ra. Chant, “Om,” one day. Have a day that everyone stands up and says, “I don’t know if there is any higher power,” and another day that e
It’s not just athiests. . The issue isn’t really allowing prayer in schools and public places. . The issue is leading prayer in schools and public places. . You can pray wherever you want – the government can not make any law hindering freedom of expression regarding religion, so sayeth the US Constitution. But that document also states that there must be a clear separation of church and state to prohibit religious interference in government or government using religion as a political tool. . So, people can pray where they want. People can even assemble and pray, in school, if they want – all sit at one table and pray before lunch. What they can’t do is tell everyone in the cafeteria that they have to pray with them – that’s where rights begin to be violated on the flip side of the coin.
To be fair, the majority of atheists probably do not want to supress public prayer, but rather have a live-and-let-live kind of outlook and do not make a big deal out of their philosophical and/or religious disagreements. They are regular people who recognize your right to believe different things than they do. I expect it is a small minority of atheists that get all the attention, file the law suits, etc. I can only deduce that these wish to impose their will on the rest of us. Just as there are more and less missionary-minded religious people… these are the extremists of the atheist perspective who wish to convert or control others by force if necessary. In the USA, nobody is “forcing” religion on people any more than they are “forcing” people to recognize the obvious truth that there are different perspectives on economic, social or environmental issues as well as religion.
