Representative Pete Stark (D-CA), the only openly nontheist member of Congress, issued a proclamation recognizing the National Day of Reason, a day celebrating reason and its positive impact on humanity. As in previous years, the National Day of Reason is scheduled to be a more universally embraceable alternative to the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer. Since the National Day of Prayer’s creation in 1952 by an act of Congress, the federal government observed the National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday of May, which this year will be May 3rd.

With taxpayer-funded faith-based initiatives giving preferential treatment to religious organizations, and Religious Right-supported efforts to remove evolution from our public school science classrooms, there has never been a better time in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of church and state. Whether you’re a humanist, a freethinker, a Hindu, or a Christian, all are able to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy. Even most fundamentalists, who live a portion of their life outside the bounds of reason, must recognize the value of reason in everyday acts, from putting together Ikea furniture to choosing the best path to get to work.

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