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Thursday, May 5, 2011
News Happy National Day of Reason
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, May 5, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Some people know today as Cinco de Mayo, and others as the National Day of Prayer. Still others will be celebrating today as the National Day of Reason. Since you probably already know a great deal about the first two, here's a little more about the last pseudo holiday on that list:
First of all, according to NationalDayofReason.org, the purpose of the day 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.
The organization makes no bones about it's opposition of the National Day of Prayer, and actually lists nine — sometimes rather long — reasons why. Here's one:
The National Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution because it asks federal and local government entities to set aside tax dollar supported time and space to engage in religious ceremonies. This results in unconstitutional governmental support of religion over no religion.
They have a point. The first Europeans on this continent came here, in large part, so they could worship the deity of their choice as they saw fit. And, why should our tax dollars fund any type of religious celebration, especially since religious organizations are tax exempt?
Last week, I reached out to CharlotteAthiests.com asking if they planned to host a National Day of Reason celebration in the Queen City, but I didn't hear back. (I'll assume the Internets ate my message.) However, if you'd like to celebrate, you can head up to the Raleigh area as the Triangle Free Thought Society plans to host several speakers and take a tour of the state's museum of natural sciences during their all-day event near the state capitol. Learn more here.
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