Prayer in schools is not a new concept. An old joke goes, 'so long as there are pop quizzes¹, there will be prayer in schools.'

There are devout and religious Christians in the US who want time set aside each school day where children are asked to take a moment of silence and bow their heads in prayer to God. The only problem is, which god?

Those who are pushing this desire for prayer in schools belong, largely, to the monotheistic faith known as Christianity. However, though Christianity is arguably the most popular religion in the world, not every child is Christian, and not every child's parents want their children subjected to Christianity as the only option.

The devout and outspoken Christians are not dismayed by this. For thousands of years, Christians have found ways to push their beliefs on others. They believe it a sacred duty and any obstacles are there merely to test their faith. Convincing you to reject your own beliefs and embrace theirs not only guarantees the safety of your soul in their mind, but it also reinforces on a subconscious level, their own belief system.

Christians have admittedly become a little better about this over the centuries. At least nowadays they are not as apt to turn to bloodshed in order to save your soul. My how times change.

Furthermore it is argued that religion does not have a place in an institution of learning. It tends to cause arguments, and religion tends to curb free choice, free speech, and free proliferation of knowledge. The debate is ongoing, and there may never be a solution to it that will please every individual.

Where it all Began

The scholastic system actually started inside church walls. In Europe during the Middle Ages, the only way someone could learn something other than what their parents already knew, was to go to church. There, one could learn mathematics, theology, as well as Latin and other 'dead' languages. The Church was actually rather greedy in regards to book learning in those days. One would have to promise to serve the clergy for life in order to be educated at a Seminary. Even back in those days the Roman Catholic Church knew that 'Knowledge is Power'.

Many scholars of the Middle Ages² discovered and embraced the quieted knowledge of the Greek and Roman societies, which the Roman Catholic Church silenced some time around the Byzantine era. Famous thinkers like Galileo, Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci picked up where the Romans and Greeks left off and went on to make new discoveries.

Over time, centuries-old ideas became outdated by new sciences and philosophies that the Church had to fight against. The Roman Catholic Church took as a given that the Earth was a flat place in the centre of the universe and that there was nothing greater than Man on this world. Science and theology began questioning such assumptions with factual evidence that sheer faith and biblical interpretation alone could not dispute.

As time wore on, the Middle Ages gave way to the European Renaissance, which was a new enlightened age that took nothing at face value. Everything was questioned, and the Catholic Christian religion had much inner turmoil.

Eventually some followers of the Catholic faith broke away to found their own variants of the religion, including denominations like the Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian faiths, and even more extreme offshoots like the Mormons, the Charismatics and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite this, Christianity is still the most widely known and organised belief system on this planet, and Catholicism is still the most popular of all the religious faiths.

However, though a series of organised religions that sometimes still try to work together, their differences of beliefs have kept each denomination set apart from the others. Paganism and other 'heathen' beliefs struggled, and some belief systems have been literally demolished in bloody wars and crusades. Still more however have survived despite this persecution. There are also individuals who choose not to believe in any god, preferring instead to put their 'faith' in the sciences or admittedly in nothing at all. Last but certainly not least, throughout history, the Jewish faith has remained steadfast and constant, having existed since the days of Moses.

There are people who look at the recent events and they believe by taking God out of schools, the end result is an increase in criminal activity and juvenile delinquency. They believe God must remain in schools, as it was when schooling began, in order to maintain discipline and teach a decent moral code in the children who represent the future of our society. However, those who disagree point to many times in history where religion superseded the search for factual knowledge, which led to ignorant and brutal acts like the Salem witch trials of the 1700s or the Spanish Inquisition and the bloody Crusades of European history. We need to instil the necessity of moral integrity in our children, but not at the cost of continuing to improve our wealth of knowledge unbridled.

There are practically as many different beliefs as there are people. Even inside the scope of a given denomination, each church has their own slight variant on the principles founded by their predecessors, and in the heart of each human being lay one's own personal belief system that works for each of them, at least in theory.

If they do eventually put prayer in schools, they have to put all the other religious stuff in schools too. It is not acceptable merely to offer a moment of silence and ask all children to pray to God, because the question of which God will always be in dispute.