Atheists Put Message On High With Billboards In Dallas-Fort Worth Area

March 31, 2009

Author: Holly Yan

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/040109dnmetbillboards.3b5b112.html

These clearly aren't signs from God.

This week, drivers in Dallas and Fort Worth will notice billboards sponsored by local atheists and agnostics.

"Don't believe in God? You are not alone," the billboards read. The signs, featuring a blue sky and clouds, tower over Interstate 35E and Northwest Highway in Dallas and I-35W just north of downtown Fort Worth. They will be up for four weeks.

Terry McDonald, an atheist and coordinator of the local coalition behind the billboards, said he hopes to reach atheists who feel uncomfortable in the Bible Belt.

"In this area, there's so much religious stuff that people feel they're alone," he said. "Christians or religious people are not our target with our billboards. But if we can let some of them know that there are a lot of us, and we're pretty much the same as they are – caring about our families, our country, our community – that'd be kind of an extra benefit we get."

The billboards include a Web address for the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (www.dfwcor.org), an umbrella organization that includes the Metroplex Atheists, the Freethinkers of University of Texas-Arlington, the Humanist Association of Ft. Worth and the North Texas Church of Freethought, among other groups.