Atheist Billboard on Cobb Parkway at Roswell Road
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national atheist, humanist, and freethought organization purchased space on a billboard on Cobb Parkway, 500 feet south of Roswell Road. The ad features the slogan, “Supernatural Belief — The Enemy of Humanity.” The FFRF previously erected a billboard on Spring Road with the slogan “The Only Wall We Need is Between Church and State.”
Cobb Resident Funds the Billboards
Both billboards were funded by FFRF member and Marietta resident Jack Egger.
Egger said in a press release, “If all of us had faith in science and humanism, we would improve life on Earth so fast. By giving up supernaturalism, we all can have a more fulfilling life, with a brighter, more peaceful and predictable future.”
In a phone conversation with the Courier, FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said, “There is a lot of discrimination against atheist and freethought groups. But we were finally able to break through that in 2006 or ’07, and we’ve been putting up billboards ever since. Jack Eggers is one of our members, and he was very keen on presenting our point-of-view in the Bible Belt. There are many nonbelievers in the Atlanta area, and he felt that you wouldn’t know that looking at billboards. So we’re trying for a little equal time.”
What is the Freedom From Religion Foundation?
The FFRF describes itself as “a state/church watchdog with more than 33,000 members and 20 chapters nationwide, including 500-plus members in Georgia and an Atlanta-area chapter.”
In the press release announcing the earlier billboard, Gaylor said, “This fundamental constitutional principle needs to be defended today more than ever. The United States is not a theocracy: Our government is supposed to be neutral toward religion, and citizens of any religion or no religion are equal under the law. That’s why we’re reminding the good folks of Atlanta about the importance of this constitutional precept.”
In the phone conversation with the Courier, she said, “We’re in our 40th anniversary year as a national group, and I’m an original co-founder of what’s gone from the original two of us to over 33,000 members nationwide and about 500+ members in Georgia. We educate the public about nontheism, which is a lot of what our billboard campaigns do, and we also work very diligently to keep religion out of government, which is an uphill battle these days. We have more than a dozen ongoing lawsuits. We have won many in the last two years. We have removed Ten Commandments monuments from public schools, we have just won an important case in New Jersey where there was extensive taxpayer subsidy of repairing houses of worship. We work to defend the constitutional wall of separation because our founders wanted a nation where the government did not get involved in religion … where there was true freedom of religion because there was freedom from religion.”
