Saying prayers in Public schools a good thing or a bad thing?

As a religious person I don't personally think that prayer should be banned. However, five minutes sounds like a loong time, even for a religious person to be praying.

Oh and *Danni* Christians and Muslims have alot more in common than most people think.

Well I don't know what religion he is but I live next door to this convenient store, and I know the guy that owns it. He's from Bangladesh and one time I went over there and he asked me to watch the store while he prayed and he prayed for longer than 5 minutes. If you are going to have prayer time it would have to be long enough for kids of any religion to complete their rituals, and that's just not fair to those who don't wish to pray.

I was under the impression that it was a sort of 'personal' prayer time i.e. you pray the way you want to. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

No, your right, but if a certain religion's prayer takes longer than the given 5 minutes they would object.

But if their prayers took longer than that, that would seem to show they have structured prayers, like what Muslims have. In which case, they would probably have their own prayer time anyway (at home).
From a Christian point of view, prayers can take as long or as not long as I want them to be.

Religion has no place in a school. A school’s supposed to teach us about stuff like reading, writing, literature, history, science, math and so on and so forth. Culturally accepted delusions do not belong in schools.
And seeing as there are so many OF them, and prayers in one type are silent, while theyr’e loud in others… heck, what a mess it’ll be.
Pray in your free time if you have to.

Exactly so what I am saying is that the given prayer time would cater to Christians and other religions who's prayers could fit but might exclude a religion who's prayers aren't quite that short. Also I saw the guy Ishmael pray.. kid's would get made fun of if they did that in the classroom.

Originally posted by Afro Cheese
Exactly so what I am saying is that the given prayer time would cater to Christians and other religions who's prayers could fit but might exclude a religion who's prayers aren't quite that short. Also I saw the guy Ishmael pray.. kid's would get made fun of if they did that in the classroom.

I think her point is that "free time" isn't what you have when you are at school.

Originally posted by The Omega
Religion has no place in a school. A school’s supposed to teach us about stuff like reading, writing, literature, history, science, math and so on and so forth. Culturally accepted delusions do not belong in schools.

Originally posted by Elastigirl
Isn't that basically what all education is? To have the beliefs of your teachers and textbooks forced on you?

By the way, I'm all for voluntary prayer in schools.

You go to school to learn facts. Then you can decide what you believe. They should be taught about the pros and cons of all religions and left to decide on their own

"God has no place between these walls as ..."
I don't remember the rest of the quote, but it's from The Simpsons when Ned Flanders becomes the principle

Originally posted by eleveninches
You go to school to learn facts. Then you can decide what you believe. They should be taught about the pros and cons of all religions and left to decide on their own

Frodo34x> “This depends on the soceity. In some soceities, almost every person may follow the same religion, or even just the majority. In others, the main religious stance may Atheism or Agnosticm.”

We’re talking about whether or not prayers belong in schools. NOT what HAPPENS in that or this society. And regardless of this fact – religious prayers do not belong in schools.

The eight-to-one U.S. Supreme Court decision in Abington v. Schempp established that, even in the absence of comments, student-led Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer during school time and under the supervision of public school teachers violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, as applied to the states through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Granted, this is not student-led Bible reading, but this is absolutley outrageous. "It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties."

Originally posted by The Omega
We’re talking about whether or not prayers belong in schools. NOT what HAPPENS in that or this society. And regardless of this fact – religious prayers do not belong in schools.

i used to go to a primary school where we had to sing prayers everyday, sing?!?! this was not a religious school, yet we all had to sing prayers.

i am not religious in the slightest, i was known as "the bad boy" because i refused to sing prayers.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I know a Chrisitian freind, who is also a teacher. He says that a short prayer at the end can help to calm the kids down.

Originally posted by frodo34x
So in a soceity where all the parents are of one religion, you would say i is stll unacceptable to have prayer in school. I ask again: what age are the children?
Im imagining a scenario where the children are aged 5 to 10ish

There's nothing wrong with a student praying in school, that is THEIR choice to pray or not to pray, however It is not suppose to be an Adult lead prayer only STUDENT lead. You can pray anytime you want in school, but a teacher can NOT make someone pray.

The problem in the UK is that a lot of state schools are church of England or run by a religious denomination. I dont have a prob wit schools having like a minute silence where you can say your own prayers if you want but it should be up to the individual not everybody standing there saying the Lords Prayer.