Reason Rally

 ( Official Website ) 

• To encourage attendees (and those who couldn’t attend) to coming out of the closeted" as secular Americans, or supporters of secular equality.
• To dispel stereotypes ("there is no one 'True Atheist' "). Participation by nontheism of all political persuasions, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds was encouraged. The intent was to show that there are secular Americans in every major demographic.
• Legislative equality. Secular Americans should be permitted to run for public office and adequately represent non-theists, just as theists in office represent their constituents. Non-theists deserve a seat at the table just as theists do; the rally should put secular values "on the radar" of American voters.

David Silverman was the creator and executive producer of the event, and the president of the Reason Rally Coalition. Organizers said the aim of the rally was twofold: to unite individuals with similar beliefs and to show the American public that the number of people who don’t believe in God is large and growing. “We have the numbers to be taken seriously,” said Paul Fidalgo, spokesman for the Center for Inquiry, which promotes the scientific method and reasoning and was one of the organizations sponsoring the rally. “We’re not just a tiny fringe group.”

According to rally spokesman Jesse Galef, diversity with the attendees was a focus this year, he stated 'We can't succeed if we are only coming from one demographic'". Comparing the 2012 rally to the 2002 Godless rally which was mainly over-40 white men, the attendees were "largely under the age of 30, at least half female and included many people of color".

Speaking to NPR prior to the rally, American Atheist president David Silverman stated that this is a coming-of-age event for atheists, "We'll look back at the Reason Rally as one of the game-changing events when people started to look at atheism and look at atheists in a different light".

With goals of bringing unity, energy, and visibility to the secular demographic, the rally can be seen as a manifestation of the secular movement that emerged in America and elsewhere in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Writing for The Guardian Sarah Posner states that the Reason Rally was modeled on the LGBT movement, encouraging people to 'come out' about their non-belief and working to humanize atheism by getting "people to personalize someone they'd always thought of as an 'other.'" Once people realize that their neighbor, co-worker or family member is an atheist it goes a long way towards acceptance. Politics played a large part of the Rally according to Posner; considering that there is only one openly atheist American Congressperson, there is a lot of work to still be done.

David Niose, the president of the American Humanist Association stated that "The secular demographic does not claim to have a monopoly on rationality, but it does feel that it has something to offer. By rallying in Washington, seculars are not whining about some imagined victimization, but rather they are exercising a voice that has been silenced for too long."

Nathan Phelps, an atheist and estranged son of Fred Phelps, the founder of the fringe group, Westboro Baptist Church, supported the Reason Rally and was among the event's speakers.

Some notable speakers of the atheist community like Richard Dawkins encouraged mockery and ridicule of religious people in his speech, which elicited a response from others. Though mockery of religion was not the aim of the rally, it happened quite often and was seen more than the positive portrayals of secularism.

• Paul Provenza stated “We're not here today to bash anyone's religion… but, hey, if it happens it happens.”Rosenhouse, Jason, “At the Reason Rally” , EvolutionBlog, March 27, 2012.
• Richard Dawkins spoke about the differences between the US and the UK, which does not have separation between church and state. "The American Constitution is a precious treasure, the envy of the world". He also stated "Mock them, ridicule them in public. Don't fall for the convention that we're all too polite to talk about religion. Religion makes specific claims about the Universe which need to be substantiated and challenged."
• Mythbuster Adam Savage stated "Everything that we have that makes our lives possible exists because human beings have... made predictions based on those tests and then improved upon them. This is reason: the human capacity to make sense of the world."
• David Silverman, president of American Atheists stated "If the atheists weren't closeted, it would be harder to hate us, because in the end, you can't hate what you already love."
• Magician Penn Jillette stated "I can make the argument...that the only ones with true morality are us, the atheists. We are doing good because it's good and are doing right because it's right, and not for reward or punishment. We have love for each other, we have community, we have charity."
• Bill Maher said, "When it comes to religion, we're not two sides of the same coin, and you don't get to put your unreason upon the same shelf with my reason. Your stuff religion has to go over there, on the shelf with Zeus, and Thor, and the Kraken. With the stuff that is not evidence based, stuff that religious people never change their mind about, no matter what happens."