The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the largest national association of atheists and agnostics, is taking its national billboard campaign to Boise, Idaho, posting a cautionary pun, “Beware of Dogma,” on a billboard on Fairview Avenue east of Maple Grove Street for the next two months.
“We wish to publicly thank many local groups which helped raise funds and scout out a good spot,” said Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The groups which helped are HOI (Humanists of Idaho), BSSSA (Boise State Secular Student Alliance), Non-Theist Meetup, and Social Idaho Atheists.”
The playful message employs a stained-glass window motif, and includes the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s name and website, ffrf.org.
The Foundation, a state/church separation watchdog with more than 13,600 members nationwide, launched a national billboard campaign in late 2007, taking its religion-free messages state-by-state.
The Foundation has placed 27 billboards in 15 states so far, now including: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin
Other Foundation billboard messages include the slogans “Imagine No Religion” and “Keep Religion OUT of Politics.” Another Foundation billboard pays homage to Charles Darwin in the bicentennial year of his birth, bearing his iconic image and saying: “Praise Darwin: Evolve Beyond Belief.”
In February, the Foundation broadened its PR campaign, unveiling six signs to run in bus interiors, quoting six famous freethinkers or skeptics.
“We’re interested in taking our campaign wherever an irreverent billboard or bus sign is needed–which is practically everywhere!” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president.
“We want to reach the unmassed masses,” adds Dan Barker, Foundation co-president, and author of the new book, Godless, about leaving the evangelical ministry and becoming an atheist.
“We want there to be an alternative to all that religion on the roadsides.”
