School Shootings - School Prayer

I finally saw a great response to the stupid meme that ignorantly suggests that God could not stop the latest school shooting (I've seen it show up at previous school shootings too) because he is "not allowed in school". I'm not sure who the original meme is responding to: religious people who genuinely do not understand how a loving god could allow this to happen or non-religious people questioning the omnipotence of a god who allows this to happen. But the originator of the meme, and those who stupidly share it are using another gun tragedy to make a point about the long-established fact that public schools are not supposed to support religion or prayer. When it was pointed out to me the other day that this stupid meme had made an appearance again, my response was that anyone posting or sharing it was a moron. Or maybe I said "idiot". You get the point, right?

Here's why I think it's moronic: First, the cartoon character asking why God did not prevent the shooting is basically a strawman argument. While a lot of people regularly question why God allows bad things to happen (there's even a name for it - "The Problem of Evil"), it's usually religious people who agonize over it. An atheist might typically bring it up in a response to a believer who cites prayer as a reason that an individual survived a tragedy. A believer in God might be conflicted over the contradictions between a loving god and the existence of evil. I doubt that you could find many people using a mass shooting as an "in" to make their arguments about the non-existence of God (or at least the apathy of God). So it's a strawman, it's adressing an argument that's either not being made, or is an altered, weakened version of an actual argument.

The response itself is beyond ridiculous. The only thing, in this context, that has ever been banned from schools, is official, teacher or administration-led prayer. Schools are not allowed to teach religion, lead prayers or endorse religion. Anyone, teachers or students, can pray. Kids can "pray at the flagpole" in groups, pray for each other on the playground, or before tests (especially if they haven't studied) - all freakin' day long! The reality is that school-sanctioned prayer still happens anyway, often during football practice, but is illegal, despite the fig leaf that it is voluntary and students can opt out.

And finally, the argument that the meme makes, that if only we hadn't banned prayer in public schools, hadn't kicked God out of the schools, then the almighty could have and would have stopped these tragedies is stupid on the face of it. The supposed presence of God hasn't stopped churches from being shot up for example.

The meme is stupid. Stop sharing it. Stop being stupid.