August 24, 2011

There’s a new billboard along the 2100 South freeway just west of 5600 West in Salt Lake City. “Don’t believe in God?” it asks. “You are not alone.” The billboard was purchased by the Utah Coalition of Reason with a grant from the Washington D.C.-based United Coalition of Reason, and it will remain up through Sept. 19. “We’re hoping to reach a lot of people on their way to the Utah State Fair,” said Elaine Ball, director of the Utah coalition. “We want everybody to know we’re coming together as people who are atheists, agnostic, or freethinking and open to discussing ideas. We’re not trying to convert or de-convert people.” The Utah Coalition of Reason also seeks to act as a counterbalance to public discussions embracing religion and the blurring of lines between church and state. “It’s a concern that candidates embrace God publicly,” she said. “We’re in a political climate where it’s not acceptable to embrace humanism. We’d like to change that.” Among other things, the Salt Lake City billboard is part of a national campaign that seeks to remove any social stigma from those who do not believe in a deity. Non-believers are inundated with religious messages at every turn. This is just one, tiny counter assertion. The day after an article appeared, a local newspaper columnist wrote about being showered with emails denouncing the atheist billboard in terms he could not print. They are most afraid of “freethinking and open to discussing ideas”, attributes very rare in Utah and completely absent from Utah politics.