In 2011, the Associação Brasileira de Ateus e Agnósticos (Brazilian Association of Atheists and Agnostics) put up these incredible billboards around the country (forgive all my rough translations below):

“Religion does not define character” — Charlie Chaplin is described as someone who didn’t believe in god while Adolf Hitler is described as someone who did.

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“Faith gives no answers. It only impedes questions.”

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“We are all atheists with the gods of others” — the captions read “Hindu myth,” “Egyptian myth,” and “Palestinian myth.”

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“If God exists, everything is permitted.”

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All the ATEA logos contained the phrase “Say no to prejudice against atheists.”

In your face. Very blunt. It’s the kind of billboard you rarely (if ever) see in the U.S.

And now, ATEA is back with new billboards in anticipation of next month’s presidential election. The campaign focuses on two goals: Defending a secular government and ending prejudice against atheists.

“We are all atheists with the gods of others”

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“Don’t vote with faith. Use reason”

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“There are 2,000,000 atheist voters”

Opinion polls show that atheists are at the top of the scale of rejection in the country, arousing disgust or hatred in 17% of the population and dislike with another 25%. The bias has important election consequences since about 2 out of every 3 Brazilians never vote for an atheist, which effectively bars any political representation of atheism. That’s why we thought it was important to remind both society and ourselves of the strength of our numbers.

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“Their religion. Not our law”

(The top image is from inside the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court, hence the slogan)

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“Atheism: A personal relationship with reality”

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“God does not help people. People help people”

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ATEA notes on its website that the campaign will run in the capital cities of Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, greater São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and São Luís.

You can see a lot of the billboards on location on the group’s Facebook page.



