Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity draws atheist group

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's joint effort, the Rally to Restore Sanity and to Restore Fear is scheduled to take place Saturday, Oct. 30 at the National Mall in Washington, DC. What may have started out as a joke has rapidly turned into something more Though. As of Oct. 27, over 223,000 people indicated their intention to go on the rally's Facebook page. While Jon Stewart has been saying (most recently on the Larry King Live show) that it's not "in any way, shape or form" a political rally and insisting that the event is not meant to counter conservative commentator Glenn Beck's recent "Restoring Honor" rally on the National Mall or to mock the "tea party" movement, some attendees will be using it to score some points of their own.

 

Among these is Washington's Coalition of Reason (CoR), whose webpage states they are "a network of local groups that have joined together to increase the sense of community among like-minded people and to enhance the growth, visibility, and acceptance of nontheists throughout the metro area." Local Coalition of Reason groups have been putting up billboards and bus ads in cities all over the country with the intention of letting atheists and other nontheists that they are not alone. In fact, just a week or two ago Washington CoR rented a number of bus shelter ads in locations all around the National Mall. These show a picture of clouds against a blue sky and read, "Don't Believe In God? Join the club." The group's web address appears below the message. These will be prominently visible to attendees of Stewart and Colbert's rally.

 

But that's not the only way Washington CoR intends to participate.

 

From their Oct. 27 press release:

 

At 11:00 AM Saturday morning, October 30, atheists, agnostics, humanists, Pastafarians, and other nontheistic types from all over the country will come together for Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" on the National Mall in Washington DC. Organized by the Washington DC Area Coalition of Reason (Washington CoR), which launched last week, these unique activists will form behind a "Coalition of Reason" banner. A number of them will be available for press interviews.

 

Their participation in the Jon Stewart rally is combined with the Washington CoR bus shelter ads placed near the National Mall that read "Don’t Believe in God? Join the club." The 67"x46" ads feature the words superimposed over an image of a blue sky and fluffy clouds. There are plans to do group photos in front of these bus shelters.

 

The 13 area groups participating in Washington CoR are Camp Quest Chesapeake, Capital Beltway Atheists, Center for Inquiry DC, DC Atheists Meetup Group, DC Atheist Women, District of Columbia Atheists, Inc., Gay Atheists of Washington (GAWD), Machar: The Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism, Maryland-DC and Northern Virginia chapters of Washington Area Secular Humanists, Northern Virginia Ethical Society, Secular Student Alliance at Howard University and University of Maryland Freethought. Friends of Washington CoR are Loudoun Atheist, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and the Secular Student Alliance at George Mason University.

 

CoR groups from other cities will be joining Washington CoR at the rally. Another atheist/humanist gathering will be sponsored by the American Humanist Association and Hemant Mehta's Friendly Atheist blog. They don't list any particular agenda (other than to have a party afterwards) but a recent "What Should My Sign Say...?" contest on the Friendly Atheist blog didn't show a particularly godless bias. Their Facebook page can be found here. Other atheists are undoubtedly attending as individuals, if not in groups.

 

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For those unable to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity in DC, there are at least 20 satellite rallies scheduled in other parts of the country. The one in Los Angeles, CA will be held at Levitt Pavilion in MacArthur Park and will feature a satellite feed from the main one in Washington. As far as I know, there will be no organized atheist participation. More information on it can be found on the Los Angeles Rally to Restore Sanity Facebook page.