美国反宗教组织:"Beware of Dogma" 提倡"free thought"

Posted October 7, 2007

Madison group aims for alternative viewpoint to religion

Organizations\' billboard message catching some negative attention

By Karen Lincoln Michel
Press-Gazette Madison bureau [e-mail]


MADISON ?An eye-catching billboard with an anti-religion message appeared along the west Beltline on Tuesday, paid for by the national Freedom From Religion Foundation.


In Gothic-style lettering set against a stained-glass motif, three words printed on the 40-foot sign warn passers-by: Beware of Dogma.


A similar billboard along U.S. 41 near Oshkosh could be next, says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Madison-based foundation that promotes free thought and the separation of church and state.


I would love to see a billboard up in that Oshkosh area, said Gaylor, adding that such a decision depends on the group\'s finances and input from its members. I\'d love to make that a next move.


Gaylor spoke of the sign during a question-and-answer session on Tuesday.


Gaylor, who co-founded the organization 30 years ago with her mother, says that over the years her group has gotten little negative reaction from the local Madison community, which she calls progressive in political thought. But elsewhere around the state, she said, the foundation has sometimes drawn criticism.


In 2000, the Catholic-based Glenmary Research Center in Nashville, Tenn., showed that more than 60 percent of Wisconsin\'s population claimed membership in a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or other meeting place defined by a religious body.


A 2001 study on religious identification conducted by the City University of New York found that 14 percent of Americans considered themselves non-religious, and that Wisconsin residents also reflected that national average.


Gaylor said it is important to offer an alternative viewpoint in a society that promotes religion.


Everywhere you go around the country you see religion, said Gaylor, adding that crosses and steeples are visible everywhere.


So we see everywhere religion and no alternative, and actually there are so many of us who are not religious, she said. So we think it\'s high time that we were more visible and more assertive.

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