National Day of Reason
Many who value the separation of religion and government have sought an appropriate response to the federally-supported National Day of Prayer, an annual abuse of the constitution. Nontheistic Americans (including freethinkers, humanists, atheists, agnostics, and deists), along with many traditionally religious allies, view such government-sanctioned sectarianism as unduly exclusionary.A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May (4 May 2006). The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason – a concept all Americans can support – and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.
Why a “National Day of Reason?”
Once again, I support a National Day of Reason to counter the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, 4 May 2006. Once again, here are a few fine points as to why a National Day of Prayer is not needed and is indeed a bad thing for all citizens:
Religious Americans who wish to pray don?t need to be reminded by government to do so, so there?s no reason to limit prayer to a single day for those who chose to practice their chosen faith in that way. Government has no business saying when or what Americans should do when and if they engage in religious practice.Government also violates the First Amendment with the National Day of Prayer by acting to promote a certain manifestation of religion. It emphasizes only one form of religious practice, and therefore discriminates against the many others, including alms giving, social justice, fasting, peace activism and meditation.
Over recent years the National Day of Prayer has become an exclusive day within religious traditions and last year the Senate Chaplain even offered an official prayer that fit closely to the Christian tradition. As the Washington Post said in a January 31, 2003 editorial, “The problem?is official prayer, and the implausible notion that it can ever be truly ecumenical.”
