Ad campaign intends to dispel atheist stereotypes with a neighbor’s face
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Eight local nonbelievers are featured on seven billboards being installed this week in Columbus and Gahanna. The ads are cheerful, colorful messages intended to introduce the public to atheists who are good, regular people – not angry or immoral, as stereotypes might suggest.
Each ad features a photograph of a central Ohio atheist – or, in one case, a married couple – and a quote of their choosing. The first, put up on Monday on W. 5th Avenue, features smiling student Olivia Chen and the words “Compassion is my religion.”
The other six billboards were scheduled to go up yesterday or today, depending on the weather.
The effort of the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is dubbed the “Out of the Closet” campaign.
The organization borrowed the language of the gay-rights movement, co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said.
The idea is that, much as people sometimes need to be told that they already know and respect a person who is homosexual, they need to have more awareness of the atheists in their midst.
Some people “have these crazy ideas that somehow we’re wicked people,” Gaylor said. “And here we are, a very respectful minority.”
Polls underscore the unpopularity of atheists. A recent Quinnipiac University poll of 1,946 people showed that 60percent of respondents were uncomfortable with the idea of an atheist presidential candidate. Only Islam fared almost as bad, with 59 percent expressing discomfort with a Muslim candidate.
Changing those perceptions is the goal of the campaign, which already has run in Madison and two other cities: Raleigh, N.C., and Tulsa, Okla.
Gaylor declined to say how much money has been spent on the campaign.
The billboards have been well-received in other cities, she said, and participants have not been subject to discrimination or attacks.
Three of the eight participants in central Ohio are students, and three others work for atheist organizations. The ads will stay up for at least a month.
Jeremy Harris, 74, of Worthington, said he chose to be on a billboard to reveal a positive face of atheism.
A retired engineer at Battelle, he chose the words, “Personal gods just don’t compute.” The billboard is on Wilson Road on the West Side.
Harris said he is moderately concerned about some sort of backlash, but “I decided the good aspects of participating here are more important than possible bad aspects.”
Ashley Paramore, 25, works for the Secular Student Alliance and recently graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in psychology.
On her billboard, on S. Hamilton Road near Eastland Mall, she stands with her telescope, alongside the message: “I see beauty in the universe – without God.”
Paramore has spoken at churches and done community service alongside Christians in New Orleans.
Her Christian friends will understand, she said. As for future employers who might find the billboard online, she figures she doesn’t want to work at a place where atheists aren’t accepted.
“Atheism tends to get a really bad rap,” she said. People think “that we’re sitting around, (being) God haters all the time. That’s not something I’m sitting around thinking or saying.”