On Thursday, Americans observed both a National Day of Prayer and a National Day of Reason.

While advocates for public prayer note that the Continental Congress in 1775 suggested that colonists pray for wisdom in creating the new nation that became the United States, formal federal recognition of the day came in 1952, when Congress passed and President Harry S. Truman signed a joint resolution declaring a national day of prayer.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed an amended law that designates the first Thursday of May each year as the National Day of Prayer.

“The National Day of Prayer belongs to all Americans,” the National Day of Prayer organization states on its website, nationaldayofprayer.org. “It is a day that transcends differences, bringing together citizens from all backgrounds.”

But it doesn’t bring together all Americans.

Those who believe that what originated as an earnest call to prayer has been co-opted by political entities that seek to use religion to gain power see no transcendence in the National Day of Prayer.

In 2003, the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists launched the National Day of Reason, arguing that government participation in the National Day of Prayer violates the separation of church and state.

“Our nation faces many problems — bringing our troops home from Afghanistan, creating jobs, educating our children, and protecting our safety net from irresponsible cuts,” Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, wrote in a proclamation for this year’s observance of the National Day of Reason. “We will solve these issues through the application of reason. We must also protect women’s reproductive choices, the integrity of scientific research and our public education system from those who would hide behind religious dogma to undermine them.”

Thursday marked the 10th year that the two observances took place simultaneously — albeit at an uncomfortable distance, both geographically and ideologically.

Call us naive, but we don’t believe that reason and prayer must be seen as mutually exclusive, competing forces. The relationship need not be adversarial. It doesn’t have to be a competition, a philosophical or spiritual fight to the death.

Reasonable people who believe in the scientific method pray. They attend and support religious institutions.

People deeply committed to their faith and to living in ways that reflect their spiritual beliefs or a particular religion’s creed exude humanistic qualities in their daily dealings with others. Doctors, researchers and pious people of similar ilk rely on — and sometimes apply — science to help advance what they perceive to be spiritual imperatives.

Reason and prayer are not exclusive properties. They can co-exist. In fact, history shows that when the two align for the betterment of humankind, ages of dynamic enlightenment emerge.

It’s reasonable that we should all pray — every day — for such a convergence in this troubled land.

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