National Day of Reason to be celebrated May 7

May 5, 10:20 PMManchester Atheism ExaminerBarbara L Bell

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One of my esteemed Examiner.com colleagues, John Snider from Atlanta, suggested giving this event coverage. I’m glad he did. For a nation that is slowly moving towards a more secular mindset, for a government that espouses separation of church and state, and for the freethinking people who reject myths and superstitions, this is a great way to counteract the unfortunate National Day of Prayer.

I’m not going to get into the history of separation of church and state - it would be useless. Most people reading this, for good or bad, have their mind made up as to what the Founding Fathers had in mind. And I’m not a Constitutional scholar.

However, I would hope that even the most conservative fundamentalist would be concerned about a National Day of Prayer. Who wants the government telling them when to worship? Wouldn’t people rather have a National Day of Prayer that is run by their church, temple, synagogue, whatever, rather than the Feds?

And for us unbelievers, we who reject the supernatural, now have a government that pretty much instructs people to pray to a supernatural being. While atheism isn’t a religion, that could still be construed as a violation of our (lack of) religious beliefs.

For a president who made passing mention of us in his inaugural address, it’s pretty disappointing.

I did not see any activities for New Hampshire, but there is an event in Massachusetts, at the Boston Bowl Family Fun Center, 820 Morrissey Blvd, Boston. Link here for more information.

For more info: The National Day of Reason is May 7, 2009.