Any interesting news on the Reason Rally? Twitter isn’t all that informative, possibly because for once people are too engaged to waste much time tweeting. I did like this one –
“300 years after the enlightenment we have to have a rally for the fucking obvious” – Tim Minchin
#reasonrally
It’s a thought I have often often often, or it might be more accurate to say I never stop having it. Why are we still having to say this when it’s so fucking obvious?
Dawkins made a similar point in the Washington Post a few days ago.
How have we come to the point where reason needs a rally to defend it? To base your life on reason means to base it on evidence and logic. Evidence is the only way we know to discover what’s true about the real world. Logic is how we deduce the consequences that follow from evidence. Who could be against either? Alas, plenty of people, which is why we need the Reason Rally.
Quite. I wonder how the True Reason people and their “water for the thirsty” are getting along.
Lots of Freethought bloggers are there, of course, making complicated plans to find each other in the crowd – PZ, Ed, Greta, JT, Jen, Hank, Dan, Brianne, Mano, that I know of. Have fun, all.
I hope they’re enjoying themselves at the rally. I went for a sail.
Dave Silverman @MrAtheistPants is posting a lot of pics. It looks rather chilly, sad to say. But I’m sure it’s being a blast anyway!
“How have we come to the point where reason needs a rally to defend it?”
Radical Enlightenment = Unfinished Business
Just got back from the Rally; it was a lot of fun, lots of soggy atheists and plenty of laughter in the rain. The Christians were barely noticed in their little fringe protest, except for those who went over and took pictures of them and their signs. There were a couple who offered me tracts/lies about Darwin, but none that offered water. Since most of us seemed to be well aware of how to acquire our own food and drinks, it probably wouldn’t have had that much impact, anyway. Guess they thought we would all be unprepared, because, well, atheists are such hedonists they don’t think about taking their creature comforts to a full day rally?
Anyway, it was a great experience, we weren’t struck by lightning or swallowed up by a black hole, so I guess god missed another opportunity.
Nothing like soggy atheists!
Did you hear Taslima? I gather from Twitter that she rocked it (just as Maryam rocked QED).
Taslima’s a colleague, just as soon as the art department finishes with her dang banner.
Oh joy!
She really rocked the convention. She gave a talk about her history, ending by saying “I’m a stranger in Bangladesh. I’m a stranger in India. I’m a stranger in the West. Where is my home?”, and then saying that her home is with the secular community which has supported her throughout. She got a thunderous applause.
I had a little bit to do with that; I was the one who introduced her. As I said in my introduction, “While the work we are doing here in the United States is important, we need to keep in mind that it is those from countries without our constitutional protections who are truly in the front lines of our struggle. I would consider myself a success as an activist if I had one tenth the dedication, the accomplishments, and the courage of our next speaker, Doctor Taslima Nasrin.”