Atheists share ideas in Ohio ad campaign

CLEVELAND (AP) — A billboard campaign that features atheists, agnostics and other non-theists sharing messages about their views started recently in northeastern Ohio.

Participants in the campaign, sponsored by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and its Northern Ohio Freethought Society chapter, said one goal is to let area nontheists know others share their views and make religious believers more comfortable with them.

The foundation erected seven billboards in central Ohio in 2011 as part of its “Out of the Closet” campaign featuring local nonbelievers.

In northeastern Ohio, a Richmond Heights couple and a University of Akron student are among Ohio residents appearing on some of the 11 billboards in areas including Cleveland and Akron.

“The main idea is to help other freethinkers not be afraid to come out of the closet and know that there are plenty of other people of similar worldview,” Mark Tiborsky of Richmond Heights, told The Plain Dealer of

“The main idea is to help other freethinkers not be afraid to come out of the closet and know that there are plenty of other people of similar worldview.”— Mark Tiborsky, who appears on a billboard with his wife

Cleveland. Tiborsky and his wife, Marni, appear together on a billboard in Cleveland.

Craig Bauman, a University of Akron student, appears on a billboard in Akron.

“I think people need to know that it’s OK to have questions and doubts and I believe they need to have a place to discuss those doubts without judgment,” he told the Akron Beacon Journal.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a church-state watchdog organization that claims more than 20,000 members, including about 550 in Ohio.