On Friday the 1st, we stomped down to the national and had a look around the Smithsonian. If white house resident GWB knew what was going on inside of the natural history museum he would

blow a gasket. Turns out the curators of the Smithsonian think that the earth is billions of years old. Furthermore, they try to explain to visitors that the homo sapian did not evolve from a monkey or from apes. They took the approach of reading what Darwin and others had to say and drew the correct conclusion that the homo sapian had a common ancestor with modern apes. It was amazing to us that this sort of thing is allowed in the capitol of a "Christian nation."

We also toured the American History museum. We took heed of some very unpleasant exhibits depicting some of the events in American

history that we would rather forget. One exhibit struck us as very disturbing. Turns out that large companies required their labor force to attend church. They would not hire anyone who was not of the Christian persuasion that the owner of the company was.

We decided to skip the air and space museum because we are from Kansas and have traveled to the air and space museum in Hutchinson several times.

Friday night, all of the reason laden people assembled in our hotel for a gab session and dinner. While no two rational thinkers thought alike, it struck me how much we had in common. I met a gentlemen who looked like James Randi but his name was El. He and I discussed the issue of being moral without religion. We

both agreed that the Xian just assumes he is moral because he "follows the word of god (or at least his interpretation of the Bible). The atheist, on the other hand, is burdened with analyzing his own actions, behavior's and thoughts. El and I both have a test which we perform to keep us on a path that benefits the human races. We simply ask ourselves; for any given situation how would we feel if the situation was reversed. In simpler terms, we treat others the way we would like to be treated. To date, we have observed no instances in which the FFF's have ever done the same.

We met several great people that night. We met Mindy and her friend Ken. Ken is an airline pilot and Mindy is a flight attendant for the same airline. We won't tell you which airline it is, just so the FFF's will sweat it next time they fly. It is good to know that reason and rational thought are running the cockpit instead "faith" that god will give us a safe landing.

We also ran into Reg Finley AKA the infidel Guy. We spoke with him for moment or two and then we had our picture taken with him. As atheists

go, he will go down in the history books with the likes of Clearance Darrow and Madelyn Murray O'Hare. He

It was quite amazing the diversity of education and occupations that filled the hotel that night. I met a mechanical engineer, an online bookstore owner, a gourmet chef, a police officer (off duty), an entomologist (bug doctor), an explosives engineer, a farm equipment serviceman and an importer of chandleries. We all came from such different backgrounds, some of we raised in strict religious homes while others came from rational families. I found people from at least 30 states and I am willing to bet that all 50 were represented.

We disagreed about almost everything. The disagreements took the form of intellectual discourse. We listened and considered each other's point of view. It gave us all a new perspective and more importantly gave us all new understanding. There was no one there who claimed to have all the answers and no one was so bull headed to insist that his was the only possible view. The only thing we all agreed on was that the supernatural simply does not exist.

This was definitely not a situation that I am accustomed to. Each conversation started from a rational point of view. No superstitious perceptions of false facts were interjected to support one view point or the other. Instead, ascertains were backed up with evidence and education. When someone was unfamiliar with what another was talking about, it was freely admitted and then explained to an objective ear. No one condemned anyone for disagreeing with another. A far cry from conversations with egotistical, self righteous, Xian exhibitionists that we usually talk with. By the end of the night, my head was running in 10 different directions. I don't think I have ever been as intellectually stimulated as was on November 1st.

The morning of November 2nd, we woke early, a bit

fatigued from the night before but full of more energy then we had felt in quite sometime. We took the metro to the mall and got to see the playful side of the free thought movement. We all gathered down by the Washington monument. There were so many people there it was easy to loose friends in the crowd. Everyone had a sign and they weren't carrying the same one either. All of the signs had a different expression of opinion on it. This had to be the largest collection of self expression I had ever seen.

Then the "march" started. We walked about 1.5 miles down to the other end of the mall where the rally was going to take place. DDD and felt a little awkward at first since we had never done anything like this before. Then, just like clockwork, we spotted the FFF's. They were standing off to the side with giant signs depicting a man being beaten and tortured. Other signs were decorated with flames and quoting the bible. DDD and I now felt right at home. We knew this part like the back of our hands. We ran ahead a little to get some pictures of the jokes with ears. When we approached, they shouted warnings of eternal damnation at us. When we didn't seem scared they started quoting the bible as if it was some universally accepted and unquestioned authority that we should submit to. We snapped a few pictures and then decided they weren't really worth our time and continued to march.

We arrived at a stage proudly sporting the GAMOW banner. It was complete with the latest in AV equipment. Since we were in the front of the line it took a while for the rest of the crowd to get there. We simply stood and watched everyone arrive. At the back of the line were the fundies. Apparently no one had taken them seriously so they were coming down to make sure we understood that they were above any question.

DDD and I decided to put the fun back in fundy and ran right up and tried to engage them in intellectual discourse. There were a few other atheists who were trying the same thing. They had

already gotten to the point were the FFF's start hurling personal insults. DDD and I presented ourselves as "fresh meat". A great big bald fat guy who looked like a biker came over and called us fools before we had said a word to him. We engaged him in some debate and backed him into a corner in about 30 seconds. Then he told us to go away. He pointed in the direction of the gathering crowd and said "the rally is over there. Go have your fun. Why do you want to hang around us?" I guess he likes sublimation and denial.

We went and found some good spots to see the speakers. Then a voice came over the loud speaker and introduced Ellen Johnson. The crowd just went ape shit. We were so loud that we couldn't hear her say "thank you" the first couple of times. We finally settled down and she began to speak. She reinforced our confidence and our pride. "Atheism without apology" became our mantra.

After Ellen was done speaking, Michael Newdow took the stage. He

spoke of some radical ideas. He suggested that atheism should be considered a religion after all. I don't think much of the crowd was in agreement with him but because we are open minded, we listened attentively to what he had to say. He does make a pretty good case for it and gave me plenty to think about.

After about and hour we decided to sit down on the ground and relax for a moment. About that time a young man walked up and stood in front of us. The back of his shirt read "god hates sin". I thought that was a little odd seeing as how this was an atheist rally. DDD and I looked at each other and drew our weapons (camera's). I said "hey jesus freak". He turned around to look straight down the barrels of our camera's. I said "smile asshole". Then he asked me if I was a sodomite. I asked him what he had in mind. Then the strangest thing came out of his mouth. He asked "is anal copulation your god?" After a few more comments about anal sex we asked him why he was so obsessed with the subject. He had no response.

A few minutes after that, we decided to go find something to eat. On the way back from lunch we encountered one of the stupidest people we had ever met. He was a fundy who claimed to be sent by god to save our souls. About 3 minutes of conversation revealed that he did not know the definition of "theocracy", he did not know who John Ashcroft was, he thought Janet Reno was the attorney general, could not name the 3 branches of US government and had never heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego but was an expert on the bible. He warned us that we had better accept Jesus because there is now scientific evidence that hell exists. Click here for the "study" he sites.

About that time, reverend deacon Fred of Landover Baptist took the stage. We walked up to hear him and the fundies were absolutely livid. They got on their bullhorns and started shouting all sorts of crap. About that time, the DC police showed up and told them to quiet down. The police tried to explain that we had a permit to have our rally and they needed to stop disrupting it with bullhorns. The fundies told the police that they had the freedom of speech and it was their right to disrupt anything they didn't like. Of course the law meant nothing to them because they had been called by a higher authority. Strange that the police would not have been necessary all day if not for the Christians.

All in all it was a great time. Our voices were heard despite the absence of any media coverage. I have come away with renewed confidence and determination. I can say more confidently then ever before that these knees shall never bow and this tong will never confess.

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