Reason Rally

Atheists and irreligious people gathered for the Reason Rally on the National Mall

The first Reason Rally was a public gathering for secularism and religious skepticism held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2012.[1][2] The rally was sponsored by major atheistic and secular organizations of the United States and was regarded as a "Woodstock for atheists and skeptics". A second Reason Rally was held June 4, 2016 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Speakers and performers at the first rally included biologist Richard Dawkins, physicist Lawrence M. Krauss, musician Tim Minchin, MythBusters co-host Adam Savage, actor-comedian Eddie Izzard, Paul Provenza, PZ Myers, Jessica Ahlquist, Dan Barker, and magician James Randi, and others.[3] The punk rock band Bad Religion performed and other notables (Rep. Pete Stark, Sen. Tom Harkin, comedian Bill Maher, magician Penn Jillette) addressed the crowd by video link. Participants recited the Pledge of Allegiance, deliberately omitting the phrase "under God", which was added by the U.S. Congress in 1954. Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces were represented, and a retired Army colonel, Kirk Lamb, led veterans in an affirmation of their secular military oaths.[4] Speakers urged those assembled to contact local and national representatives and ask them to support church-state separation, science education, marriage equality for gays and lesbians, and ending government support of faith-based organizations, among other causes.[5]

According to the official website of the first rally, the aim of the Reason Rally was to "unify, energize, and embolden secular people nationwide, while dispelling the negative opinions held by so much of American society."[2] The website had predicted it would be "the largest secular event in world history." The Atlantic said 20,000 people were in attendance.[6] Religion News Service said 8,000–10,000.[7] The documentary The Unbelievers says that over 30,000 people attended the rally.[8] There are no official crowd estimates of events on the Mall.

The second rally, the Reason Rally for 2016, was billed as "a celebration of fact-driven public policy, the value of critical thinking, and the voting power of secular Americans".[9] The weekend of the Rally included advocacy events and conference sessions. The expected crowd attendance was 30,000 but only about 15,000 to 20,000 actually attended the rally, according to the organizer's estimate.[10][11]

  1. ^ Aratani, Lori, " 'Godless Rally' in D.C. for Recognition and Respect", The Washington Post, C1, C10; Sunday, March 25, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Reason Rally - About". Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  3. ^ "Speakers". Reason Rally. Archived from the original on 2012-06-06. Retrieved 2012-06-18.
  4. ^ Torpy, Jason, “Reason Rally shows patriotism and military support” Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine, Atheists in Foxholes News, 26 March 2012.
  5. ^ Winston, Kimberly (2012). "Nonbelievers flex their political muscles". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
  6. ^ Benjamin Fearnow & Mickey Woods, "Richard Dawkins Preaches to Nonbelievers at Reason Rally", The Atlantic, March 24, 2012.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference winston was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Gus Holwerda, "The Unbelievers" April 2013
  9. ^ Speak Up for Reason! Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zaimov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Mehta, Hemant (June 5, 2016). "Where was the Crowd for the Reason Rally?". Friendly Atheist.