Thanks to her description of non-religious people as “… those who don’t believe in anything,” we can see that the May 21 letter writer (“Prayer day doesn’t establish religion”) couldn’t resist using the very same argumentative style — ad hominem — that she was so passionately writing to denounce. As a non-religious person with a lot of beliefs, thank you, I take great offense at her ignorant view of me, and suspect that her religion is the source of her delusion.
Of course, she’s wrong about the National Day of Prayer not being an endorsement of religion by our government: you can’t have prayer without religion. (You can have beliefs, though.) A government endorsement of prayer is therefore a government endorsement of religion.
If proclaiming a National Day of Prayer does not violate the rule to avoid respecting, establishing or endorsing religion simply because it shows no favoritism to any particular religion and doesn’t require you to actually pray, then there’s no doubt room for a lot more to share in this official honor. The writer wouldn’t want the government to show favoritism, would she?
By the same standards, the writer will have to admit that the government won’t be establishing, respecting or endorsing the liquor industry when they proclaim National Martini Day. (Nondrinkers can still celebrate it by thinking of ways to solve world problems.) And, I’m sure the religious crowd eagerly looks forward to that enlightened time when National Lesbian Love Day is proclaimed. I’ll bet we’ll see some ad hominem then.
Bob Hubbard
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