withoutgodThe following comes from a Nov. 27 story on Reuters (U.K.)

As the Christmas season approaches in the United States, a group of non-believers in the California capital are planning to erect billboards explaining why they are atheists in hopes of bringing broader visibility to their lack of religious faith.

The 55 billboards that will soon dot the Sacramento landscape will feature pictures of local residents and slogans such as “Good without God,” and follow similar campaigns in other major U.S. cities in recent years.

“Those of us who are free from religion, who work to keep dogma out of government, science, medicine and education, have a lot to offer society,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, which sponsored the ads.

The billboards set to go up in Sacramento on the day after Thanksgiving are part of the increasingly loud arguments between many deeply religious Christians whose faith has informed U.S. conservative politics for a generation, and a vocal cohort of secular, often younger voters who want to keep religion out of public life.

The foundation also plans to place a large version of the letter “A,” for atheism, in Chicago’s Daley Plaza, the site of an annual Christmas display.

The aim of the campaign is to show people who are not religious that they don’t have to hide their views in a polarized nation where atheists and agnostics often feel isolated, Gaylor said.

The Sacramento billboards show smiling capital-area residents against softly colored backgrounds, listing their names and the communities in which they live.

“Doing good is my religion,” says a sign featuring Mashariki Lawson, who identifies herself on the billboard as a “humanist.”

To read the entire story, click here.