Reason Rally in Washington draws Pitt students

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The day was cold, cloudy and rainy, but on Saturday, more than 15,000… WASHINGTON, D.C. — The day was cold, cloudy and rainy, but on Saturday, more than 15,000 people descended on the nation’s capital for the Reason Rally, a gathering of atheists, humanists and secularists.

Among the attendees at the event on The National Mall were members of Pitt’s Secular Alliance who made the trip to the capitol to hear the testimonies of famous atheists, such as author Richard Dawkins and the co-host of the TV show Mythbusters, Adam Savage.

Members of religious communities also came out to engage in debate on the outskirts of the day-long rally.

The rally included speakers, comedians and live performances from solo musicians and the punk rock band Bad Religion.

David Silverman, the chair of the Reason Rally and the president of American Atheists, said that the rally was the biggest gathering of secular people in history, and that the biggest misconceptions about atheists are that they don’t exist and that they don’t matter.

“There are atheists everywhere, in every church, in every family and every neighborhood,” Silverman said. “We made history today, and I think we started some balls rolling.”

He said that the next step for the movement is the election, and that atheists need to use the media to ask “serious questions” about political candidates’ faiths and religions. He acknowledged that religious people and atheists have their differences, but added that they have many more similarities.

“We have so much in common with religious people. We are ethically the same people. We want the same things,” Silverman said. “Don’t cheat. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t rape … [Religious people] think that their ethics comes from an invisible man in the sky, and we don’t. We think our ethics come from within, and from society, and the environment in which we were raised.”

Jesse Galef, the 25-year-old communications director for the National Secular Student Alliance, wasn’t raised in a religious household, but his family celebrated Christmas to give presents and decorate a tree and Hanukkah to light candles and eat latkes. He never faced any extreme opposition from others for his atheistic views, but he said that many other atheists have.

“There is a huge stigma against atheists,” Galef said. “As more people come out and admit they are atheists … [non-atheists] realize that [atheists] are just like them. We can be good people. And that [non-atheists] know more atheists than they think. And the stigma will go away.”

Philip Ness-Thomas, who has a YouTube channel devoted to spreading the word of God, stood at the side of the event holding a sign that said, “Read the Bible. Jesus saves from hell.”

He was approached by attendees of the rally throughout the day and engaged them in debate. He offered some advice for those who do not believe in God.

“Without knowledge, you are just stupid and ignorant,” Ness-Thomas said. “The best thing I could tell atheists is to study. Be unbiased in your study. This is about your soul, what we are preaching.”

Jean Romanowski, a member of Pitt’s Secular Student Alliance, made the trip to D.C. to meet up with other atheists and learn from the speakers of the day. She was raised as a fundamentalist evangelical Pentecostal Christian, but became an atheist at the age of 14.

“I am not under the illusion that I can change any of their minds,” Romanowski said of religious people. “But if I were to come into contact with someone who was perhaps from the same flavor of Christianity that I came from, I would perhaps ask them what is keeping them there.”

Paul Provenza, comedian, actor, director and host of the Reason Rally, was raised a Catholic and had a deep fascination with science. He said that he was nonreligious before he identified himself as an atheist, and that he thinks many others are the same way. He hoped that people would be more vocal about their true religious beliefs.

“One of the reasons why I am so happy to be a part of this [atheist movement], is because I am happy for anybody to see that they are not alone if they question those things and say, ‘You know what, I don’t buy it, and I’m not gonna say I buy it anymore,’” Provenza said.