Billboards Tell Drivers It's Okay To Be Religion-Free

DETROIT (WWJ) - An unusual billboard is getting some attention in Michigan.

The signs along several Michigan freeways say "Millions of Americans are living happily without religion."

It's sponsored by the Center for Inquiry. Assistant Director Jennifer Beahan tells WWJ's Zahra Huber that the billboard has two goals:

"The primary goal is just to let people know that they are not alone if they are not religious and that there is a community group that they can be a part of," said Beahan.

And the second goal, she says, is to help "dispel some of the negative sterotypes that many people have of non-religious people. For many years secular people have been demonized in the media as being terrible, angry, horrible people and we are not that way at all."

The signs are along U.S. 131 in the Grand Rapids area, I-94 in Kalamazoo and I-75 in Madison Heights.

They can also be seen in Indianapolis, New York and Washington, D.C.

Beahan says about one in five people are non-religious and the campaign is all a part of the national Living Without Religion Campaign.