Freedom of religion ought to mean freedom from religion.
The Constitution of the United States of America; Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Should Christians in America be allowed to pray in public on public property during public ceremonies?
The Christian mangod/godman, Jesus, is supposed to have said the following words:
The Christian Bible:
St. Matthew:
6: 5 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. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6: 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
6: 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
6: 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Atheists and agnostics as well as informed Christians should champion laws which prevent public prayer by Christians to help Christians avoid being hypocrites in the judgement of their god and to help them avoid being sent to their Hell instead of their Heaven.
Beyond that, it is common courtesy to conduct religion in private.
No one is saying Christians cannot practice their religion; but those who are informed are saying that Christians as well as other religionists ought to practice their religion in private.
Those who are not Christians and those who are courteous Christians have no need of hearing Christians pray to their gods [God the Father, Jesus the mangod/godman/Son, the Holy Ghost].
Thomas Jefferson said: The essence of all law is that no man should injure another; all the rest is commentary.
Injury can be thus defined: Causing the loss of life, limb, liberty, or property of an innocent man.
An innocent man can be thus defined: An individual who intends to cause no injury to another individual who intends to cause no injury to him or to any other individual who does not intend to injure any other individuals.
A criminal can be thus defined: An individual who intends to cause injury [the loss of life/limb/liberty/property] to another individual who does not intend to injure him [except is defense of himself and/or others from criminal injury].
Jefferson's The Essence of All Law can be paraphrased thus:
The essence of all law is that no man should [be allowed to] injure another [innocent man]; all the rest [of the law] is commentary.
Jefferson's The Essence of All Law provides a basis for the following Standards for Public Laws and Policies:
1. A public law or policy should benefit all citizens.
2. A public law or policy should not injure an innocent individual.
By inflicting their religion upon those who have no need of their religion, Christians commit injury to inncent individuals by denying those individuals who prefer freedom from religion their essential liberty, their essential freedom.
Christians proudly proclaim that the United States of America was founded on Christian [principles, but the facts are different, and Christians either do not know the history of the Founding of the United States or they are deliberately denying that history, whose facts include (A) the fact that the majority of the Founders, including Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and John Adams, especially those present at the US Constitutional Convention, authorized by the US Continental Congress, as testified to by Charles Thompson, Secretary and Official Historian of the Continental Congress, The Rev. Dr. Ashbel (Asa) Green, Chaplain to the Continental Congress, by the Rev. Dr. Bird Wilson, and others, were not Christians, but, instead, were Deists, not whose Deism was of the kind developed in ancient Greece which included the belief that a single god created the universe but does not intervene in human affairs, but, instead, whose Deism was developed in the sixteenth century in England and France, which included a belief in a god that created the universe and who listens to prayers and intervenes in human events, according to its will, but did not include a belief in the Christian God, nor in the Christian godman/mangod, Jesus, nor in the Christian Holy Ghost, nor in the Christian Bible as the revelation of gods and their works, and who, having witnessed the atrocities inflicted upon innocent individuals by Christians who gained control of some of the governments of Europe, among such atrocities including the Inquisition, and who, by their private words, as testified by their personal correspondences, still extant and available for public inspection at the US Library of Congress, declared that Christianity was an offense to innocent individuals, intended to ensure that Christians were not able to establish Christianity to be the state religion of the United States of America, and to ensure that other religionists likewise were not able to establish their religion to be the official state religion, (B) the fact that the first six US Presidents were Deists, not Christians, (C) the fact that the first nineteen US Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, were not deeply religious, (D) the fact that, by comparing public records with church records, historians have shown that at best only eighteen percent (18%) of the Colonists were Christians, the remaining either professing no belief or a belief other than Christianity, and (D) the Treaty of Tripoli, initiated under President Thomas Jefferson and signed by President John Adams, and published in current newspapers without significant dissent or outcry from citizens, included a declaration that the United States was not a Christian Nation.
Concerning the subject of religion, a philosophy which includes among its concept and principles the belief in the existence of a god or of gods, beings who/which supposedly have more knowledge and capabilities for using that knowledge than humans individually or collectively, the fundamental question is thus: Do gods exist?
Has anyone answered this question conclusively? Has anyone proven gods exist? What did they offer for proof? Physical evidence--the gods themselves? Eyewitness reports of the gods themselves (physical evidence) from credible witnesses, individuals not known or otherwise proven to be liars or to have personal motivations other than the presentation of truth, and corroborated by credible corroborators, in reports, such as claimed to be in the Christian Bible, that have no contradictions, no historical or scientific inaccuracies, etc.? Logical arguments in which the premises are verifiable/falsifiable/verified (by physical evidence--the gods themselves, or by eyewitness reports from credible witnesses and corroborators), suffer no logical fallacies, which do not appear in the conclusions, in which the conclusions do not appear, and lead to relevant conclusions which would be true if the premises are verified to be true? Religionists are fond of claiming that their gods are unobservable, as if they believe in the existence of unobserved unobservables, and yet they make claims that they know facts concerning their unobserved unobservables, as if to them, the religionists, particularly the religious leadership, their gods, which are unobserved unobservables to other mortals, are, nevertheless, observable to them, which supposedly gives them justification for their claim of knowledge.
No one has to this date offered conclusive proof of the existence of gods, and, therefore, without proof of the existence of gods, the subject of religion, in particular, the worship or acknowledgment of the existence and influence of gods, should not enter into public laws nor policies, hence religion should not be taught as truth in public schools, and religious practices, which support the religions being practiced, should be forbidden in public places on public property using public moneys.
Freedom of religion ought to mean freedom from religion.