[Thor]

Dammit, I'll bite.

Originally Posted by Calgaryborn

Rosa Parks was restricted to the back of the bus. She had a reason to feel bad. Atheist boy wasn't restricted physically at all. He wasn't singled out for discrimination.

No, discrimination is solely based on location of a person in a bus, not discrimination based on race, creed, or hippy clothes.

Again the standard should be whether harm has been done. I don't see where it has. This kid was no victim by rather the aggressor. Even if somewhere in the States school prayer is being forced upon non believers this was not the hill to battle over. This was just a kid acting out his rebellion.

Its ASTONISHING how you can't imagine or put yourself in the shoes of someone being singled out, I mean even with the re-occurring false christian persecution complex that so many of you have.

I know for a fact, if that girl stated "lets all bow towards mecca and praise allah our lord God." You would be losing your collective sh*t like nobodies business. You can pretend you won't but you most obviously would.

I'm a little busy right now to get into it. The question came up from reading the preamble to the American constitution. Were they right? What does life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness mean? And can they be backed up by scriptures? Of course any of the promises of God can be seen as rights and there are some rights(promises) before God that are only given to Christians. There are also general obligations towards mankind and God which tempers these rights. It gets quite involved.

Wow, so much fluff, the fact is the founding fathers were quite clear, escaping the tyranny of Europe for religious freedom in the United States. Please read Thomas Jefferson's biography, please read anything about the founding fathers because they hated state religion, the loathed that a king could turn his affair to become 2 religions, and then murder those who didn't agree.

Freedom of religion, was also as importantly about freedom FROM religion and that the state should require no test and should never push one belief over another (theocracy.)

I guess the title "atheist boy" stems first of all from laziness. I didn't remember his name. Beyond that it seems to fit him well in that his beef is because he is an atheist and he is acting like a boy. Boys/children think of themselves to the exclusion of others. They tend to act impulsively without looking ahead to the consequences. Teens and young adults are often found to be idealists. They grab on to an abstract principle and goes whereever it takes them. They also like to make noise.

Wow, the utter and complete stupidity of this is beyond words. What would be the point of responding, the simple reading of this paragraph should be enough for the vast majority of humans to regard this as beyond ridiculous.

This kid has managed to offend people by forcing them through the ACLU to change something against their will. Don't we all owe a debt of gratitude to the community that raised us. Isn't that a part of the graduation ceremony? Acknowledging those who contributed to where we find ourselves today. This kid just flipped the bird at the values of these neighbours and friends on a national stage. How immature! He not only ruined the spirit and joy associated with this occasion for himself but, also for his peers and community. Nobody is going to forget this graduation for all the wrong reasons.

Oh yeah cause if he didn't force that 1 min of silence over prayer, the entire evening and future memories of this magical night would have been RUINED and all those unfortunate Christians would live less a life because of it. So immature, damn.

It's not just him. There are others he should consider, respect, and maybe indulge. A pro-active gospel message isn't what we are talking about here. That would be the equivalent to a pro-active atheist message. We are talking about a short prayer. That is a small thing. I'll bet a few of the speeches would be harder to endure.

lol, I still would love to see your children sit through a Muslim graduation ceremony where your kids had a choice to either do the bows to mecca or stand outside, obviously they should just shut up and do as the muslims do, because its petty for them not to.

The difference is in the participation. That's simple enough. He doesn't have to participate in the prayer anymore than he has to listen to the Principal's speech. How much did you participate in your graduation ceremony? Were there parts that meant nothing to you but, were important to the guy next to you?

Sorry but you know the only reason you are faking opposition to this whole thing is that its a Christian prayer that was denied by an Atheist, and damn FACTS be damned, you can't allow that to happen.

Every single one of us, knows that if you were looking at your child being ostracized for standing up to a Muslim assembly proclaiming Allah; you would be the most ballistic and fervent opposition to such a situation.