On this 2013 National Day of Prayer, may the God of grace forgive us our sins and heal our land. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
Alternatively, for those for whom prayer is not their cup of tea, today is also National Day of Reason.
Reason is what brought me to the conclusion that there is One to pray to. I'm sure more than a few atheists would tear their hair out upon reading such a statement :smile: I find both concurring holidays to be equally trite, but hope at least someone out there somewhere has some good/clean/sober fun with it.
I think it's unusual, but it doesn't grind my gears or anything. I mean, I don't know what the origins of existence or consciousness are, and those are mindbogglingly amazing things. The problem with solving the puzzle supernaturally, though, is that it just kicks the can down the road -- if there's existence instead of nothing because God did it, then why is there God instead of nothing? And then it's turtles all the way down. The Reason one is, obviously, a response to National Day of Prayer. Believe it or not, I'm not trying to be anti-religion here. Personally, I think atheists who get upset about holidays like Easter and Christmas should take a chill pill. They're longstanding bona fide traditions that have as much cultural meaning as they do religious, especially since they poach most of their symbolism from previous religions. Nor do I think that separation of church and state means that it's reasonable to expect religious people never to talk about their religion publicly or act in a religious fashion when others can see. National Day of Prayer, however, is a manufactured event specifically designed to mix religion and government. It's a public observance to promote collective religious behavior with the tacit expectation that everyone will either comply or at least feel there's nothing to which to object. That, to me, is a bridge too far.
