My home town of San Antonio has a new billboard that’s sure to anger people who make it their business to always be angry. The billboard was placed by the San Antonio Coalition of Reason, part of the United Coalition of Reason:

“Don’t believe in God? Join the club.”

These words, superimposed over an image of a Texas sunrise, are now up on a 14 x 48 foot digital billboard located on the west side of I-10 at North Crossroads Blvd. The billboard is visible to traffic heading south, whether continuing on the Interstate just past I-410, taking the off ramp to the Wonderland of the Americas Mall or taking the on ramp south when leaving the mall.

The ad will remain up through the Memorial Day weekend, a span that includes Mother’s Day. It was placed by the San Antonio Coalition of Reason (San Antonio CoR) with $5,000 in funding from the United Coalition of Reason (UnitedCoR). The billboard campaign marks the public launch of San Antonio CoR, an alliance of six established non-theistic groups in Central Texas. The groups are Atheist Families of San Antonio, Freethinkers Association of Central Texas, Humanists of San Antonio, San Antonio Atheists Group, San Antonio Skeptics and Texas Hill Country Freethinkers.

The message seems to be simple, along the lines of “If you are not a person of faith in a supernatural being or beings, you are not doomed to ostracism and ridicule after all.” At least, that’s the message that someone who lives in as religious a city as San Antonio yet does not share that belief might get. Some billboards put up by atheist groups have been profoundly ill-advised and downright stupid, but this one seems rather muted. There is no exhortation to leave a particular faith, nor even encouragement to consider doing so per se. It just lets people know that they are not alone.

I suppose it is possible that the creator of this billboard is now planning the next phase of the Master Plan while wearing a gray wool coat, sitting in a large black leather chair, and stroking a white cat. It seems like the less likely possibility, though.

Billboards such as these tend to generate controversy. My favorite was the kerfuffle in Fort Worth, Texas in December 2010, when an atheist group planned to place ads on city buses. The ads simply would have said “You can be good without God” or “Millions of Americans are Good Without God.” The ensuing furor and cries of victimhood from dominant religious leaders led the city, in a move that ought to embarrass anyone with a shred of intellectual integrity, opted to ban all atheist and religious advertising on city buses. At least they recognized that if one went, the other had to go, too.

The response in San Antonio, at least so far, seems a bit more phoned-in, at least according to the Express News’ reporting:

The new billboard is an ill-advised use of money for an outmoded message, said the Rev. Gerry Metzger, pastor of Bethany Congregational United Church of Christ, which is located nearby.

“That is quite an expensive way of sharing their thoughts,” Metzger said. “I think we’ve lived long enough to see numerous times when the ‘God is dead’ ideas have been thrown out.”

So UCOR puts out a “you are not alone message,” and a minister responds with Nietzsche, sort of. (Psst, hey Reverend! You can’t kill something you never believed existed. Just sayin’.)

Honestly, the atheist movement deserves better villains than this.

Photo credit: Image from: Godless Billboard on I-10 in San Antonio by San Antonio Coalition of Reason [Fair Use], via United Colaition of Reason; Blofeldpleasance67 [Fair use], via Wikipedia.