Godless billboard now in Houston

Many may have heard of the various Godless signs appearing on billboard and buses around the country. Starting today, they've come to Houston...


The Houston Freethought Alliance (www.HoustonFreethoughtAlliance.org) is an alliance of local secular organizations. These organizations include the Humanists of Houston, the Houston Church of Freethought, the Humanist Association of Montgomery County, the Atheists Meetup, and the Secular Center. Together, with funding from the national organization United Coalition of Reason, the billboard appears prominently at I-45 and 1960, near Ella Blvd.

The sign features a blue sky with clouds, and the words "Don't Believe in God? You are not alone" and includes the contact information for the Alliance.

This project is part of an active campaign to spread awareness of these organizations. Rather than criticizing others, the message here merely lets those who don't believe in a God know that there are others like them, and gives them a way to make contact with like-minded people if they choose.  In a world where the majority are theists, there are many people who feel rather alone in their atheism or agnosticism.

I personally don't find the God/no-God question all that important. I prefer Humanism not because of what I don't believe, but rather because it is about what I do believe. Humanist values are what's important to me, and that has to do with how we treat one another, being compassionate, and how we live our lives. I think we have a lot in common with our theist friends on those grounds. Having said that, it at least seems like the phrase "Don't Believe in God? You are not alone" is not a bad one.

The groups mentioned exist here in Houston for several purposes. Among them:

• Providing a fellowship of like-minded people
• Providing social get-togethers and fun events
• Hosting intellectually stimulating speaking events and presentations on a number of issues from a naturalistic or nontheistic point of view
• Helping to give a community support system to those who may not find churches something to which they can relate
• Helping to connect people with secular celebrants who can conduct weddings, funerals, and other secular ceremonies
• Doing charitable work in the community
• Working to further education about naturalism, science, and reason
• Working to support church/state separation and the rights of non-believers

Of course, there are many theists who find even the billboards as worded offensive or confrontational. In some other cities, similar billboards have already been vandalized more than once. It seems nontheists, merely by making themselves known, are seen as evil or beligerent by some, which is unfortunate.  Some of the billboards around the country say things like, "Good without God" or "Good for Goodness' Sake". The general message of all of them has simply been (a) to nontheists: that you are not alone and please contact us, and (b) to everyone else: people who don't believe in God can still be good people.

Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason said, "The point of our national billboard campaign is to reach out to the millions of humanists, atheists and agnostics living in the United States... Nontheists sometimes don't realize there's a community out there for them because they're inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren't alone."

But reaching out to nontheists isn't the only goal of the campaign. "Our message is also to let people know that we are part of the larger community,” added Noelle George, coordinator of the Houston Freethought Alliance. "We're your friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members. We're just like you except that we don't believe in a supreme being. Now we'd like the same opportunity as everyone else to be open about our views."

The United Coalition of Reason has launched a dozen advertising campaigns previously this year. Each involved billboards or public transit ads. They appeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Morgantown, West Virginia; Newark, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; and Portland, Oregon.