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Thousands of atheists, agnostics and other non-believers turned out in the US capital on Saturday to celebrate their rejection of the idea of God and to claim a bigger place in public life.
The Reason Rally, sponsored by 20 atheist, secular and humanist groups, was billed as the biggest-ever "coming-out" party for the fastest-growing religious group in the United States -- those with no religion.
"There are too many people in this country who have been cowed into fear of coming out as atheists, secularists or agnostics," said the event's star, Richard Dawkins, the British scientist and best-selling atheist author.
"We are far more numerous than anybody realizes," he said, prompting a loud cheer from the youthful crowd that defied gray skies and drizzle for an afternoon of speeches, music and satire on the National Mall.
Jesse Galef of the Secular Student Alliance, a spokesman for the rally, told AFP he conservatively estimated the turnout at 10,000. The National Park Service, which oversees the mall, had issued a permit for 15,000.
Comment: Here we can see how New Age disinformation works hand in hand with the authoritarians' crackdown on anything 'unusual'. On the one hand organisations like MIVILUDES will be crying wolf about bizarre New Age activities in the lead-up to 21 December. On the other hand COINTELPRO will be driving the New Agers to increasingly hysterical states. Combined, the two hands of the same puppet will create public demand for a government crackdown on the 'end of the world' hysteria, which originates in agents of those same governments.