Atheist group brings roadside ad to Springs

A Wisconsin-based atheist group brought its message to Colorado Springs Wednesday in the form of a billboard proclaiming "Imagine No Religion."

The billboard, which is on a busy stretch of Academy Boulevard between Dublin Boulevard and Woodmen Road, will be up through Dec. 4. The words are sprawled across a 10-by-22-foot field of faux stained glass that's illuminated at night.

"This is an alternative message that people need to hear in Colorado Springs, the hotbed of the Christian right," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the billboard's sponsor, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit association with 12,000 members.

"The purpose is to bring free thought and alternative view of religion to people."

Since October 2007, the group has paid for provocative anti-religious billboards in nine states. It erected an "Imagine No Religion" billboard in downtown Denver last summer, then replaced it with the message "Keep Religion OUT of Politics" during the Democratic National Convention.

The foundation chose the North Academy Boulevard site because it's minutes from Focus on the Family, and the nonprofit's members hope the billboard will influence the religious views of Focus staff and visitors, Gaylord said.

But Focus isn't the group's only intended audience.

"We plan to put up billboards in 46 states," said Gaylor, whose organization paid $1,400 to rent the space on North Academy.

The billboard could be a lightning rod for vandalism, but Jeff Moore of Lamar, a national billboard company that installed "Imagine No Religion," isn't worried.

"It is very rare that that happens," Moore said.

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