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. Continue reading →