Well said, but it seems to be somewhat of a leap to say that disallowing group prayer in public school is atheist, or even if it was, how you would then separate all religions from school to include Atheism, if not doing something or the negative of religion is a religion in itself.

And might I add:

Matthew 6:5-6: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men….when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret….”

The premise of Atheism is simple: there is no God.

Not quite, Sparky. The premise of atheism (btw, atheism, not Atheism) is belief in deities is currently unwarranted. Maybe one day there’ll be some evidence. Personally, I’m holding out for evidence of Nessie. Wouldn’t that be cool, huh? Until then, believing in that beastie is unwarranted, too.

Now if you read the Constitution, you’d know that it’s not the government’s place to either establish a religion, favor one over the other, favor religious belief over no religious belief, or give any appearance, no matter how innocuous, of engaging in any of that. To that end, things like the National Day of Prayer, “God” in the Pledge and in the national motto, religious icons on display on government property, and public school teachers leading prayers are violations of that. You were indeed correct when you said, “Government should be above the religious debate.” Unfortunately, government has been hijacked by those eager to place it not just squarely at the center of that debate, but ever closer to one specific side. In contrast, show me the atheist who wants “Under no god” in the Pledge, “In no god do we trust” as the US motto, A National Day of No Prayer, or public school teachers leading students in affirmations that there are no gods.

Now as far as mocking goes, I fail to see what that has to do with anything. The freedom of speech which is afforded to all of us in this country permits an atheist to mock a Christian, a Christian to mock a Jew, a Jew to mock a Hindu, and so on. We each are free to mock one another, something someone needs to explain to Mrs. Palin since she’s shown she’s got the First Amendment backwards.

Have a nice day. :)

You nailed it!

The founding father had NO intention of separating church and state—their purpose was to prevent the establishment of a state church like England had (Church of England). There are always those who try and rewrite history to conform to contemporary values. The founding fathers did NOT intend to separate Christianity from the State. That is a recent concept, not one of the founders. They did favor slavery–that was changed by war and amendments to the constitution. If one want to change the constitution begin a revolution or amend it; but don’t try to change it by judical review.

If one reads Thomas Jefferson’s own writings, particularly relating to the Virginia Resolution regarding religion this whole “what the Founders intended” debate goes away. Some were Christians, some were Deists, and the majority remembered what a mess Europe became because of religion and wanted to avoid that here. NONE advocated making people worship. And by the way, Ron, a great many of the Founders did not favor slavery but there were bigger issues wrapped around that that could not be solved or separated at the time. Some Founders were fighting slavery before we were a separate nation.

But I digress. Atheism has gotten damn militant. I’m an atheist, but because I’m also an American I don’t see any problem with you praying. Just don’t insist that I do. See how that works? Freedom is a beautiful thing.