A billboard posted along a Santa Ana freeway is encouraging drivers to come out to their loved ones. The 48-by-14 foot sign tells passersby not to be ashamed if they don’t believe in a god.

"Tell your family if you don’t believe in gods," the billboard reads. "They just might agree."

Backyard Skeptics, a local grass-roots skeptics/atheist group, with American Atheists from New York placed the billboard on the 55 Freeway and Edinger in Santa Ana.

This is not the first time atheism has been publicly expressed in Southern California.

In December 2011, Christmastime displays in Santa Monica equated the story of Jesus with that of Santa Claus and Poseidon.

Atheists won space for 18 displays, awarded by a lottery.

In previous years, more than a dozen local churches and a police officer’s group sponsored

Nativity scenes – 14 in all.

But last year the usually-religious space was transformed to suggest that Christianity is a myth, according to the atheist displays.



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