Billboard to Indy: 'You don't need God'

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - It's nearly the season of lent — a time of prayer, penance and sacrifice for Christians around the world. And this week, four billboards will go up around Indianapolis with a message proclaiming, "You don't need God."

It's a controversial message, but the group paying for the billboards says members don't want to raise the ire of the faithful; they want to raise the tolerance level and change the way believers view those who don't.

Faith is seemingly woven into the fabric of U.S. culture. The U.S. is — or at least professes to be — a nation of believers with a vast majority of Americans proclaiming a belief in God. But those who don't believe say that's changing.

"The number of non-believers is increasing in the United States," said Ron Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, about 16 percent of Americans profess no religious affiliation. That's up from about 8 percent a decade ago. Because of that growth, the Amherst, N.Y.-based Center for Inquiry believes it's time for the billboard of the non-believer. It will stand high above Indy highways proclaiming the message that no higher power is needed to hope, to care, to love, to live.

"One can have a caring and fulfilling life without believing in God," said Lindsay.

To that, Chris Coyne, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis says the non-believer can be happy and fulfilled, but "all goodness, all happiness, all creation flows from God whether you believe it or not."

That's a matter about which Coyne and Lindsay will have to disagree. But on this they do agree: Believers and those who don't must be tolerant of one another. And the billboard is an opportunity for open discussion.

"People can choose to believe or not believe, and anything that encourages a healthy dialogue about belief is a step in the right direction," said Coyne.

Four billboards will go up in highly traveled areas across Indy by week's end. They're also going up in Houston, Texas and Washington, D.C.

The president of the Center for Inquiry says the timing of the billboards going up at lent is coincidental.