KY billboard upsets bible believers

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Lexington, KY's news station WKYT.com says that it has received hundreds of comments on its Facebook page over a billboard sponsored by the Bluegrass Coalition of Reason.  What has generated the controversy is a billboard on New Circle Road in Lexington that reads, "Don't believe in God?  Join the club."

According to the WKYT report, most of the comments on Facebook were negative (see video embedded below).

The station interviewed people around town who were offended by the sign.  "It needs to come down.  It should have never gone up," a woman complained to reporters.  "I think the sign is an absolute disgrace.  Who in their right mind would think about putting up a sign like that.  I mean, I just think it's crazy," opined another of the faithful.

A spokesperson for the Bluegrass Coalition for Reason told reporters that he didn't know of a nicer way to put up the billboard, and that the group was not going to apologize for it.  In a press release issued Sept. 18, the group stated, "The ad has been placed by the Bluegrass Coalition of Reason with $5,650 in funding from the United Coalition of Reason. Its appearance marks the public launch of Bluegrass CoR, the Bluegrass Coalition of Reason, which is an alliance of five atheist, humanist, secularist and skeptic groups working together in the greater Lexington area."  The release notes that the billboard will remain "until Columbus Day, heralding the first ever Kentucky Freethought Convention, to be held October 6 at the University of Kentucky" and that the event "will feature a former minister and religious broadcaster, university professors, and freethought leaders."

In a separate report from WKYT, a pastor suggested that people complaining about the billboard should reach out to those who are behind it.  "When I think of how Jesus would confront something like this, I don't think he would try to tear it down, I think he would try to love the people with a differing opinion or view," Dr. Carl Peters of the Anchor Baptist Church in Lexington told WKYT.

Among the speakers at the Kentucky Freethought Convention are a panel of former clergy, including Joe Brennan, a former Catholic priest, Chris Davis, a former Baptist minister, and Matt Mobley, a former Baptist minister who was expelled from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for becoming an atheist. Other speakers include Seth Andrews, known as "The Thinking Atheist," a number of university professors, and attorney Edwin Kagin, who founded Camp Quest, a summer camp for children of nonbelievers and a recipient of the Atheist of the Year award from American Atheists.

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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  • 12

    Now my state is raising hell. AWWWWW YEEEEAH!

    • Deborah_B

      I bet folks would really get unhinged if such a billboard showed up by the Creation Museum.

  • Matt

    I love the fact that, in this day and age, NOT believing in God is seen as a crazy. Shouldn't it be the other way around? It has been said that if you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people, but they can't open their closed minds enough to let facts and reason in.

  • KarlRodgers

    If a billboard can shake their faith, then maybe their faith isn't all it's cracked up to be?

    To the faithful: Look at what is happening around the world, look at what evil religion does (not just the 'wrong' religions, your religion too) and tell me if that is a club you are really proud to be in.

    • Deborah_B

      "If a billboard can shake their faith, then maybe their faith isn't all it's cracked up to be?" pretty much nails it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jared.mckittrick Jared McKittrick

    The fundamentalists think that Muslims are bad because of how they reacted to that stupid Muhammad movie. Well, every time someone even mentions atheism they throw a shit-fit, so in my opinion they're just as bad. They claim the burden of proof is on us, but they have it ass-backwards because a 2000-year old book is NOT proof.

    • Opium88

      Absolutely. It's a story. Just because it's in writing doesn't make it truth. Maybe if mathew, mark, Luke and John had thought to have their books notarized, maybe I might reconsider. Lol

  • emote_control

    What gets me, every single time this happens, is that Christians think it's "a disgrace" or "horrible" that someone might have a different opinion than they do. That's all it takes for them to call for something to be torn down or hidden or burned or locked away. They think their religion is so fragile and meaningless that just the existence of people who don't believe is enough to shake the foundations of society. It's ridiculous.

    The other thing I want to point out is that this thing won't survive until Columbus Day without vandalism. Because while atheists don't go around defacing signs or pulling "Jesus fish" off people's cars, Christians have demonstrated time and time again that they have no compunctions against vandalising atheist expression.

  • menotyou

    Is it egotistical and presumtious that the Christians assumed that the God being referred to in the billboard is thier God? Is this the sin of pride?

  • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

    The religious are offended by anything atheists say. It's really ridiculous. It deserves to stay and I'm glad it is staying up.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/AYIFSEPMHMNEFFLFASS63H5VJY dawgsfan2012

      No kidding. All it says is that, yes, atheists exist. Not, "God is a punk and everyone that believes in him is an idiot." Seriously. I don't believe in God but I don't get upset with billboards promoting churches.

      • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

        Yeah, I can ignore church billboards. They are everywhere and just blend in with the landscape, making them very easy to ignore.

    • Thin-ice

      Yes, I'm sure that if it were legal, fundamentalists would like to kill all atheists, or at the very least, render them speechless. After all, isn't that the example God set in the Old Testament?

  • Thin-ice

    What, Kentucky Christians don't think non-theists have the right to publicly send a message to their own people? This is not a billboard proselytizing believers, which, of course is perfectly all right if you're trying to "reach people for Jesus". Just one more example of believers being hypocritical to the extreme.