Atheist billboards spread their messages this holiday season

Atheist billboards are dueling this week for eyeballs and media attention -- and a place at the Thanksgiving table.

Just what we need. Something else to argue about with family and friends.

The Center for Inquiry, which describes itself as an international secular advocacy organization, said it has unveiled an electronic billboard message overlooking New York City’s Times Square.

It declares: “Millions show love and gratitude without God,� and adds, “Happy Thanksgiving to all who make the world a better place!�

Meanwhile, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and its new Sacramento chapter says on its website it will unveil more than 50 billboards in California next month “featuring the smiling faces and unapologetically forthright views of area nonbelievers� with text such as “Studying the bible made me an atheist� and “No gods, no devils, no worries.�

This all comes just days after a New Jersey-based secular organization, American Atheists, announced it was posting electronic billboards in New Jersey bashing Pope Francis and others who use prayer, bibles and rosaries to tend to victims of natural disasters.

It would be much more beneficial, American Atheists contends, to focus the public on ways they can send concrete aid to disaster victims.

This flurry of activity should come as no surprise.

The Center for Inquiry says in a statement that it intentionally chose this time of year -- a time held sacred by many -- to remind the public that “love and gratitude can be fully experienced and expressed without belief in God.� It is part of a “Living Without Religion� campaign aimed in part at knocking down the stereotypes of nonbelievers as “angry or lost.�

What do you think? Are nonbelievers angry and lost?

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