As December begins this year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is ushering in a different kind of seasonal greeting in the Atlanta area.
On Friday, Dec. 1, the national freethought association is placing its cheerfully irreverent message, “Reason’s Greetings,” on a prominent lighted 14 by 48 foot digital billboard near the intersection of Interstate 75 and the Gresham Road overpass. Two different versions of the same message will rotate on the billboard throughout the month of December.
“We humans in the Northern Hemisphere have been celebrating the Winter Solstice, a natural holiday, long before Christmas crashed the party,” says FFRF co-founder and Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The Winter Solstice, on Dec. 21 this year, is the real reason for the season — the shortest, darkest day of the year, heralding the rebirth of the sun, the lengthening of days and the natural New Year.”
FFRF member Jack Egger was pivotal in getting the billboard up. FFRF also has a chapter in the Atlanta area that works to spread freethought and secularism.
“If all of us had faith in science and humanism, we would improve life on Earth so fast,” says Egger. “By giving up supernaturalism, we all can have a more fulfilling life, with a brighter, more peaceful and predictable future.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation and its members work to promote the viewpoint of freethinkers, including atheists and agnostics, and to protect the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government. FFRF has roughly 30,000 members and 20 chapters all over the country, including 500-plus and the Atlanta chapter in Georgia.