The Backyard Skeptics group in Orange County, California has just put up this billboard “off the 55 freeway and Edinger Ave in Santa Ana”:

The ad costs $6,000 and it’ll be up for one month. It’s paid for by an anonymous donor. Two more billboards will follow:

“We’ve been getting a lot of comments from people saying we should have spent that money on charity,” [Backyard Skeptics founder Bruce] Gleason said. “But look at all the Christian billboards. Shouldn’t they also be spending that money on charity?” Two more atheist billboards will appear next month, he said. One, along the 22 Freeway at Valley View, will say: “Faith has no answers. It only impedes questions.” The other, along a street in Orange, will quote Thomas Jefferson.

Gleason also explained why he put up the ad in an opinion piece for the Daily Pilot:

So why an atheist billboard? I believe it will make people examine their faith. Maybe it takes a controversial idea to whack someone’s mind-numbing ignorant bliss to make them at least peek at the other side and ask some questions. And just maybe, they’ll do less praying and more doing to make this world a better place.

This is the third billboard campaign for the Backyard Skeptics.

Their first was in conjunction with the Orange County Coalition of Reason:

Their second campaign was run entirely by them and featured two ads spread out over 30 different bus shelters:

With all the attention the ads are getting, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up paying for themselves by way of members and donations.



