‘What Myths Do You See?’ Billboard Comes to California

After watching American Atheists place a controversial billboard at the foot of the Lincoln Tunnel last month, Bruce Gleason and the Backyard Skeptics group in California have adopted the image, reworded it slightly, and put it up in Westminster:

7 Million Californians know MYTHS when they see them.
What myths do you see?

Said Gleason:

”It is hard for people who are indoctrinated in a religious belief with many superstitions to look at their beliefs as myths, but it’s amazing that the same people look at the other religions and call them superstitions and myths. This seems like a perfect case of confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance”…

“The billboard is meant to have others who believe to compare other myths to their own beliefs and to reflect on how myths can, thought a drawn-out legend-building process, come to be thought of as real,” he explains.

Matt Coker reports that the billboard space has been leased for the next six months and the Backyard Skeptics will be changing the image to promote other secular messages between now and then.

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Annie

I think they perfected this billboard. It will be difficult for the religious to complain (although I am sure they will) as they are not saying anything negative, but simply asking a question.
Anna

Great billboard! Although I wish they had chosen a different picture of the devil. That one just looks strange (why is he wearing a suit?) and the mask is a little on the grotesque side. The last thing we need is for atheists to be accused of scaring “the children,” LOL.
Former Thumper

I think this billboard is too assholish. Are we really winning anyone over with this or are we just looking like assholes? I like the CoR billboards they reach out to those who feel alone and increase atheist visibility without being needlessly insulting. I am really getting tired of silverman and his group making us look bad.
Ernest Valdemar

I have a dear friend who is an evangelical Christian, and we share a mutual fried who is an ex-Mormon. Once, in a casual conversation, I mentioned our mutual friend’s ex-Mormonism.

Evangelical Christian: Well, you have to admit, as the basis of a major religion, it’s a crazy story.

Me: Yeah, well, except for all the other ones.

EC: Touché.

We’re still good friends. Surely that counts for something?
Ron Futch

The message cannot be too subtle either. It has to be interesting. It has to create some sort of emotion; otherwise, it’s forgettable.
gsw

I am missing Mohammed/Allah and Krishna.

Of course, if Mo isn’t up there because they didn’t want the sign bombed, one must ask the muslim communities if this is the message they want to advocate?
Anna

I don’t see what’s wrong with it. There’s a huge double standard when it comes to religion in this country. Christians can proclaim that their god is real, and they proclaim it loudly and often. No one accuses them of being arrogant or insensitive or presumptuous. But if we dare to suggest that their god is a myth, we’re considered jerks?