Congressman Jamie Raskin and Congressman Jared Huffman of the United States Congress have introduced a bill to declare May 4 the National Day of Reason to recognize and celebrate science, common sense and logic as essential preconditions for progress in the US government and society at large.

“At a time when authoritarians, demagogues and hucksters around the world are promoting conspiracy theories, irrationalism, bigotry and propaganda, it is more important than ever to defend truth and reason, which are central to a strong democracy,” said Rep. Raskin. “A National Day of Reason will bring our nation’s founding tenets of empirical inquiry, knowledge, facts and science to the forefront. These governing principles, central in the framing of our Constitution and to our democracy remain crucial as we navigate surging political extremism and a new digital landscape rife with mis- and disinformation.”

What exactly is reason? Reason: ‘To form conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.’ What if everyone did that, just for one day? Reason and knowledge informed the founding of the United States and in that process, the separation of church and state. Reason and knowledge supported the numerous scientific and technological accomplishments that have made the US successful.

A Day of Reason would be consistent with current Australia.

Section 116 of the Constitution of Australia states:
The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

The percentage of Australian’s reporting no religious affiliation continues to grow. It’s now at 38.9 per cent of the population compared to 30.1 per cent in the 2016 Census.

A Day of Reason would recognise that part of the Australian population that follows no religion, be consistent with Section 116 and encourage STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Having a 'day' for anything is not going to change anything at all. The days we already have had for many years don't make a damn of difference. People go to bed that night thinking just the same as they did when they got up.

A day of reason would seem to be useless, particularly as people all think that they are reasonable.

Lots of good ideas come out of the U.S. This is not one of them.

Forgot to ask, David. Why would non-Christians/any religion want to be "recognised" for merely not being something that they don't want to be, and are fully entitled not to be?

Dear ttbn,

You wrote,

"Why would non-Christians/any religion want to be "recognised" for merely not being something that they don't want to be, and are fully entitled not to be?"

At this time the Christian religion is favoured over non-religion or other religions since we have chaplains or beasts of pray in the public schools, all representing various varieties of fundamentalist Christianity. I think chaplains are fine in religious schools where parents send their children to be indoctrinated in their faith. However, I think the state schools should be neutral toward religion and teach comparative religion so that students have a knowledge of what different people believe and don't believe. I think chaplains in the state schools are a violation of S 116 of the Australian Constitution. I am 97 and have no school age children. If I had I would like to send them to state schools where they would interact with children of different backgrounds and be free of religious or non-religious indoctrination.

David,

School 'chaplains' in state schools support the social and emotional wellbeing of students. Religious instruction was banned years ago.

In my working days, we had regular visits by 'chaplains'. Not once did any of them mention religion. Not one of them was a member of the clergy.

In multicultural Australia, children do "interact with children of different backgrounds (and are) free of religious or non-religious indoctrination" in Christian schools and private schools.

My wife taught in a Catholic school; she wasn't, and isn't 'religious', and she was not a Catholic. It was a small college, but it had students from a wide range of backgrounds, including Christians, Muslims and people of no faith. No children were "indoctrinated" religiously or non-religiously.

Things have changed since you went to school.

To sum up: there is no religious teaching in state schools; in Christian schools there is observance of periodic Christian events, and a prayer first thing in the morning in which no student takes an individual, personal role (a bit like Parliament). If that is too much for some, they have the state school system. But, there are many non-Christian parents sending their kids to Christian at substantial cost for the superior results that they don’t get in the state system, where they are "indoctrinated" politically and sexually.

Dear ttbn,

I know chaplains in state schools are not suppose to proselytize. Somebody wittier than I said, "That's sending in the clowns and asking then not to be funny." I have talked with one of the chaplains who spoke of the church-state partnership. I certainly got the feeling that she was more interested in pushing her religion than having a general concern for the student's welfare.

I don't see why religious organisations should be involved.