Expert: Austin Cline - 4/6/2008

Question
Hi there. I wondered if you could share your thoughts with me on taking prayer out of the school. I personally am for it, because I don't think that religion should be forced on anyone, and that it is a private matter. Recently a group of my colleagues got on the subject of school shootings, and one of them suggested taking prayer out of the schools is responsible for the decline in moral values amongst youth. Everyone seemed to readily agree. I did not, but I kept my opinions to myself. I have long been persecuted for being an atheist. Now I wish I had said something, but I wasn't sure what to say. The underlying belief seems to be that if you don't believe in god, there is nothing to stop you from being "bad" or to motivate you to be good. In other words, you have to be a christian in order to have morals. Please share  your thoughts. Thank you.

Jasmine

Answer
It's not easy to stand out by objecting to what everyone around you is saying, but if no one does it then nothing will ever change. Perhaps, if you do say something, you'll find that there are others who agree but are even more afraid to speak than you were.

Of course it's nonsense to say that one has to be a Christian in order to be moral. The argument that a decline in moral values can be attributed to taking prayer out of school is based on a correlation between the two in time - but there is as much a correlation with desegregating schools. Would your friends have nodded in agreement that racial integration is responsible for a decline in moral values? That's just as bigoted as saying that atheists cannot be moral.

Besides, the "prayers" that were "taken out of school" were not personal prayers of students (who can pray all they want), but of official, state-written and state-approved prayers. What genuinely devout Christian wants the state writing prayers, approving of prayers, setting time for prayers, dictating how to say prayers, etc.?