On a rainy March day in 2012, tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., under ponchos and umbrellas to listen to scientists and others offer them reasons, and maybe a bit of courage, to acknowledge that they do not believe in God. The Reason Rally, captured in the documentary The Unbelievers, shows that there is an enormous groundswell of atheism in the United States, said British biologist Richard Dawkins, one of the main subjects of the film.

On a rainy March day in 2012, tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., under ponchos and umbrellas to listen to scientists and others offer them reasons, and maybe a bit of courage, to acknowledge that they do not believe in God.

The Reason Rally, captured in the documentary The Unbelievers, shows that there is an enormous groundswell of atheism in the United States, said British biologist Richard Dawkins, one of the main subjects of the film.

�I suspect this may be a sort of tipping point,� said Dawkins, author, atheist and founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. �Lots and lots and lots of people don�t believe in a supreme being.�

Dawkins will visit Ohio State University on Monday with the film�s director and also with Lawrence Krauss, an Arizona State University physics professor, cosmologist and author who is the other main subject of the documentary. Columbus is the third stop on The Unbelievers university tour, offering a screening of the film followed by a question-and-answer session.

Director Gus Holwerda sought to capture the excitement that follows Hawkins and Krauss as they tour the world to promote their books. He first experienced the phenomenon when he and his brother Luke attended a science event put on by Krauss and attended by Dawkins.

�It kind of blew us away. No one had ever captured this before, this kind of rock �n� roll science thing that�s going on,� Holwerda said.

Columbus was chosen as a screening site because there is a large, growing nonreligious group on campus, he said. The Secular Student Alliance, with 366 affiliates nationwide, is headquartered on the city�s Northwest Side.

There�s still a stigma attached to the word atheist, said Krauss, noting a study referenced in the film that found that atheists were the least trusted among various groups, rating alongside rapists. The film, he said, says it�s OK to admit atheism, that there are a lot of other people who feel the same way.

He said he isn�t debunking religion as much as debunking myths and superstitions that make people do irrational things that could affect others. He wants to help people �not only accept but rejoice in the real wonder of the universe.�

The thousands at the Reason Rally, Krauss said, reveal a real need.

�People are craving the opportunity to question things and to point out their skepticism, and people are craving to learn science,� he said. �What I�m mostly interested in is getting people excited about science and the real world.�

The film by Black Chalk Productions, to be available soon on Netflix, DVD and Blu-ray, features the duo in the U.S., Australia and England. It includes comments from a long list of celebrities, including Woody Allen, Cameron Diaz and Penn Jillette.

It also shows Christian and Muslim groups protesting the men�s appearances.

At film-festival screenings throughout the world, Holwerda said, viewers have said the science-versus-religion debate is an important issue to address, and many have spent an hour or two talking about it after seeing the film.

�If there is a goal with the film, it�s mainly to encourage people to have conversations about these things,� he said. �What bigger question is there than the God question?�

jviviano@dispatch.com

@JoAnneViviano