For the seventh straight year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has put up the following sign in the Illinois State Capitol rotunda:

It reads:

At this season of

THE WINTER SOLSTICE

may reason prevail. There are no gods,

no devils, no angels,

no heaven or hell.

There is only our natural world.

Religion is but

myth and superstition

that hardens hearts

and enslaves minds.

“This sign is a reminder of the real reason for the season, the Winter Solstice,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, which is the shortest and darkest day of the year, and takes place on Dec. 22 this year. The natural holiday heralds the rebirth of the sun and the natural new year, and has been celebrated for millennia in the Northern Hemisphere with festivals of light, evergreens, feasts and gift exchanges. “We nonbelievers don’t mind sharing the season with Christians,” Gaylor adds, “we just don’t like the pretense that it’s about a supernatural birth of a god.”

The sign comes in response to a Nativity scene also in the Capitol.

So far, there haven’t been any complaints. But give it a few hours.



