SO for the athiest and non believers....How can you possibly explain this away...?

Question

I have seen the graph statistics of crime in America since we took prayer out of school. I have seen the graph statistics of STD's of junior high students since they took prayer out of schools. I have seen the graph statistics of the education level of students in america since we took prayer out of school. I have seen the graph statistics of teen pregancies since we took prayer out of schools. As you can imagine....the facts show a dramatic increase in crime in america. it shows a dramatic increase teen pregancies, it shows a dramatic increase in a the rise of STDs in junior high. It also shows the massive drop in education levels since we took out prayer.
so we go to schools and get dumber and society gets more violent, children have children and disease runs rises all since prayer was removed. whats up?

Answer 1

I agree. I don't think taking prayer out of school was the ONLY cause though. I think the morals of the country overall have gone downhill. We didn't even have AIDS in the '70s. 25 years later it's one of the most destructive pandemics in world history. I don't think children and adults are getting dumber. I think they're just getting careless.

Think about if everyone followed God's teachings and waited until after marriage for sex, the spread std's and AIDS would drop dramatically. No matter what you believe, you can't argue with that.

LabGrrl, please post your source; I'm very interested in reading it, because I'd guess you may be mistaken. School shootings have skyrocketed in the past 30 years:

1970's: 1
1980's: 4
1990's: 21
2000's: 37

Answer 2

That is BS. You could just as easily say that as pirates have gone, we have had more global warming.

In fact, crime has gone down in recent years.

Here are the average SAT scores for the last 25 years:
Year: Verbal Math
1972: 530 509
1976: 509 497
1980: 502 492
1984: 504 497
1988: 505 501
1990: 500 501
1992: 500 501
1994: 499 504
1996: 505 508
1998: 505 512
2000: 505 514
2002: 504 516
2004: 508 518
2005: 508 520

Hmm, seems higher now than ever in math, but lower in verbal skills. That makes sense given the changes in society. You can more likely blame TV and Internet than any religious excuse.

Answer 3

They only took Sanctioned Prayer out of Schools. *Sigh* No one reads up on these laws, obviously... they just cry about it being done.

Crime, Disease, Teen Pregnancies.... all of these things will go up when the population goes up.

Intelligence is NOT gained by praying for it. The reason our childrens intelligence is dropping is because the school systems have lowered their standards for the "No Child Left Behind" system they have placed in all Public Schools.

No one can stop you from praying in school. To even suggest that they have is silly..... Now, if you want Sanctioned/Lead Prayer brought back into schools, then you will have to allow me and other Pagans to have your children lead in our Rituals.... You will have to allow for the Muslims to LEAD you in prayer 5 x's a day, etc.... Talk about the intelligence dropping, that would do it because No One would be doing school work...

Please read up on the laws concerning this. Also, I suggest you look at the school systems before they removed Lead Prayer - Cincinnati, Ohio never really had Sanctioned Prayer nor did they read from the Bible long before that ever went to court. Many schools in Kentucky didn't as well. You are not looking at the whole picture and comparing it to 50 yrs ago to see where the differences in FAMILY LIFE is... instead you're blaming all of societies problems on "they took prayer out of school"

Answer 4

I think you are inventing a correlation where none exists. Why then are the least religious countries faring far better in crime, stds, abortions, violence then the more religious countries like the US? In the world today the countries with the most peaceful and least violent societies are the most secular ones with the lowest levels of religious belief. Apparently it doesn't require mandated prayer or belief to create peaceful and moral societies. Students can still pray in school if they desire its just not legal for public schools to sponsor prayer or endorse or discriminate against any belief or lack of belief.

Answer 5

How nice of you to make up things. According to you and your fellow Christians; all of you ASSUME that taking out prayer in public school is the SINGLE factor to the cause of the false statement you have just made.

You and everyone like you have FAILED to realize that there are MANY FACTORS that have contributed to the problems in public schools.

Also from which religious denomination should prayers be based on? OH! Right only Christianity is acceptable.

Furthermore our government is NOT to endorse a religion. It goes against the First Amendment.

Answer 6

Correlation does not equal causation. It read today about how America has become a more tolerant nation over the same period of time. Does than mean prayer in schools causes racism? Of course not. Muslim countries ave very low rates of STD amoung teenagers, does that mean we should have muslim prayers 5 times a day.

Contrary to popular belief, kids pray in school all the time, read the bible too. They just can't be forced into by the school itself.

Answer 7

The American society doesn't view learning as a high priority. That's the problem. It's much more entertainment based, where everyone is focused on what the celebrities are doing rather than what they're doing in class. Many teachers aren't even really qualified, the basic K-12 learning system now is just daycare.

STD's happen because kids aren't taught proper sexual education. Know why that is? Because you get fundamentalist parents that do "we don't want our kids learning about condoms. They aren't supposed to have sex because that's what's in the BIBLE." Teens have urges, and they're going to act upon those urges. Trying to suppress that is idiotic. This also applies to the pregnancies.

Answer 8

Since that time, we've also seen the super-sizing of fast food meals -- does that mean Big Macs are getting young girls pregnant?

Coincidence does not indicate causality -- that's Logic 101. You should have picked that up in high school.

There are far too many factors that were also going on -- the creation of the welfare state, the Sexual Revolution, development of new forms of birth control (which people then mis-use), and so on -- to immediately jump to the conclusion that taking prayer out of the equation MUST be the reason for it all.

Now, riddle me this: why do you suppose that non-believers represent about 10% of the population in general in America, but only make up about 1% of the population in our nation's correctional facilities? Are the atheists and agnostics simply smarter, and avoid getting caught? Or does secular humanism instill a greater respect for the rights of others and the sanctity of human life than your self-anointed religions of peace and love?

Answer 9

It's interesting that, during the same time period, Europe also became less religious and rates of teenage pregnancy, crime, etc have gone *down*. In fact, the US is unusual in the extent that its citizens believe in a deity and are willing to make political statements based on this belief. So, instead of having *effective* sex education, child care, health care, (and many other social programs), the US has bowed to the religious conservatives and avoided these services. We see the result all around us.

Answer 10

i think that reflects more on society than god. look at the stats 10 years before prayer was taken from school and you will find an increase in each year up until prayer was removed from schools. The trend has just continued and will continue.