OC Atheists Unveil Another Provocative Billboard


This afternoon, under a billboard facing Chapman Avenue in Orange, local atheists unveil the third phase of their “outreach program for letting other non-believers know they
have a voice in Orange County.”

The grass-roots group Backyard Skeptics will unveil their latest billboard, which has text reading, “Make
This A Better World–Reject All Religious Superstitions.”
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Backyard Skeptics organizing director Bruce
Gleason
is scheduled to lead a press conference about the 48- x 14-foot
billboard about a mile east of the 55 freeway, on the left side of
Chapman. He boasts a membership of 500 makes his is the largest group of
organized atheists in the county.



“Atheists and humanists believe the world would be a better place
without religious superstitions,” reads a statement from the group about today's unveiling. “Although people of faith ignore
religious superstitions outside of their faith, they see their own
superstitions as fact and real. This billboard's message is that many
superstitions are confirmed false by a believer when the superstitions
in question are outside of their faith, but the believer will confirm
the superstitions as true and real when they are tenants of their own
religion.

“Magic underwear? Ridiculous. Talking snakes? Yes that actually
happened! Many times a belief in religious superstitions results in the
suffering of others because of the behavior believers exhibit,” the statement continues. “This
negative behavior stems from their faith and is hidden by the tenants of
their religion. Although there are many attributes of religion which
are positive, it pales in comparison with the actions religionists take
which does not contribute to the well-being of others. The hindering of stem
cell research, abstinence programs, the denial that condoms prevents
STDs and gay marriage are several examples of how belief based on
religious superstitions harms others.”

Backyard Skeptics's second billboard, unveiled Sept. 21 alongside the 22
freeway at Valley View in Garden Grove, carried the message, “Faith
Has No Answers–It Only Impedes Questions.” It featured an image of a
man reading the Bible though prison bars. The group's first billboard
went up a month earlier next to the 55 freeway off Edinger Avenue in
Santa Ana. It featured the slogan, “Atheism is Philanthropy Without
Mythology,
Peace Without Superstition.”

The group raised the ire of
believers across the nation for tearing pages out of Bibles near
Huntington Beach Pier on Sept. 17. They did so to mimic the “Thomas
Jefferson
Bible,” which removed biblical laws already deemed immoral by
colonial times.

To learn more about the group, visit www.backyardskeptics.com.

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