Upgrading From Prayer to Reason

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roy-speckhardt/national-day-of-reason_b_5234635.html

Roy Speckhardt
Executive Director, American Humanist Association

Posted: 05/01/2014 9:25 am EDT Updated: 05/01/2014 9:59 am EDT


MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images

The first Thursday in May is a peculiar day for many Americans as it's a day set aside for government to intrude in their private religious practices. On May 1, the National Day of Prayer, government officials from city council to president ask citizens to join them in supplication. The National Day of Prayer was made an annual event when President Harry S. Truman signed a joint resolution into law in 1952. This was the Cold War era of McCarthyism where fear of communism drove Americans to permit the curbing of our freedoms, some temporarily, and some like the Day of Prayer and the insertion of "Under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, unabating to the present day.

How do National Day of Prayer and "Under God" reduce our freedom?

Politicians asking Americans to pray and turning our daily pledge into kind of a prayer are egregious violations of the First Amendment principle of church-state separation where government is prohibited from actions that establish religion. If "God" and "prayer" don't qualify as "religious" I'm not sure what would.

These actions also run afoul the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that all citizens deserve equal protection under the law. How can government provide equal consideration to all when it's sends statements like these that imply prayer is necessary for patriotic participation? By its very nature, prayer not only excludes nontheistic Americans, it makes them feel left out of American civic life simply because they either don't believe in a god or because they don't think the government should tell them when or how to pray. Non-praying religious people, and those Christians who take Jesus's warning against public prayer seriously, also are disregarded.

more at link

[longship]

1. Religion and governing is a toxic mix.

Religious beliefs are a personal choice, not a government mandate, or even a recommendation.

Why can't people understand those very simple concepts?

Boggles the mind.

[cbayer]

4. Hello longship and welcome back.

I am hopeful that we are moving more in that direction.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. It does assume that the nation...

prays in the manner of the more conservative protestants. And the much more conservative protestants seems to be running it lately, with nobody else actually caring about it.

A Day of Reason is equally silly, though. Aside from nobody noticing, or caring, it would seem that anyone actually caring about reason would just go ahead and act reasonably with or without a day to celebrate it.

[cbayer]

5. While I don't like these "Day of" things at all,

I think this is a good counterbalance that will hopefully lead to a more "interfaith" (meaning inclusive of believers and non-believers) event.

This was the first Day of Reason and it appears that it was purposefully designated to coincide with the day of prayer.

[gtar100]

3. What we have been taught that prayer is, unfortunately is a shell of what it can and should be.

It can be used as a method of linking ourselves back to a sound, reasoned mind; an opportunity to step back from the reactionary mind to think and feel in a more conscious way about stuff that matters to us in relation to our highest ideals. How it became time with God in which we get to ask him for favors is a really sad commentary on our modern state of mind.

[cbayer]

6. When there are statistics reported that say that a large number of people

"pray" on a regular basis, I think many of them are doing it in a way that is consistent with the reflection you describe.

[skepticscott]

8. What you're talking about is meditation

It's not clear why you need to categorize it as "prayer"

[gtar100]

9. Not really, though meditation does have similar effects. Prayer to me is

more centered in the intellect than meditation and does involve a dialog. But yes I am extending the definition of prayer. I think the general concept of it is rather limited in most mainstream religions, at least as presented. Just my observation, it can be a very personal thing.

[struggle4progress]

7. The whole thing is silly and meaningless

36 USC 119
The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals

The original 1952 version let the President pick the day; the 1988 revision fixed the date at the first Thursday in May. Note that 36 USC 119 evidently imposes no requirement on anyone except the President, and I quite expect that the President, if so inclined, could refuse to issue the Proclamation, claiming it an infringement on Executive branch prerogatives by the Legislative branch -- but why bother? A "proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation" seems to me a big bunch of nothing

Here's yesterday's proclamation:

Presidential Proclamation -- National Day of Prayer, 2014
One of our Nation's great strengths is the freedom we hold dear, including the freedom to exercise our faiths freely ... Today and every day, prayers will be said for comfort for those who mourn, healing for those who are sick, protection for those who are in harm's way, and strength for those who lead. Today and every day, forgiveness and reconciliation will be sought through prayer ... As we give thanks for our liberties, we must never forget those around the world, including Americans, who are being held or persecuted because of their convictions. Let us remember all prisoners of conscience today, whatever their faiths or beliefs and wherever they are held. Let us continue to take every action within our power to secure their release ... The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a "National Day of Prayer." NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2014, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings ...