It's not the kind of thing we typically see around the holidays: a billboard asking you to question Christianity. One such billboard popped up downtown just days before Christmas. So what do people celebrating the birth of Jesus think about this billboard on the Main Street Bridge?
It reads "beware of dogma." Dogma, of course, refers to religious teachings. This is one of several similar signs across the country placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Patricia Colding was a little confused when she first saw the sign. "I thought it was some kind of religious cult or ... what was it? It didn't make any sense," she said.
LeeWood Thomas with the Freethinkers of Central Arkansas, the group that worked with the Freedom From Religion Foundation to put up the sign, says it's basically meant to make people think about why they're celebrating Christmas. "Look into it and make sure that it makes sense for you instead of just grabbing onto it. If someone says this is what it is and that's how it is, no need to question it, we want you to question everything," says Thomas.
Thomas says it's also meant to increase awareness about the number of atheists and agnostics in central Arkansas, a group he says people discriminate against. "It's when religious people start to impress their religious beliefs on others...that's where I personally have a problem with it. We can't buy liquor on Sunday in Arkansas because of origination of a religious belief," Thomas said.
Pastor Mark Evans led a Christmas service at the Church at Rock Creek Tuesday night. One celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, a teaching the billboard says to beware of. "Everybody in America has the right to express whatever their thoughts are. Just like our job, at Christmas especially, is just to let people know how much God loves them," Evans said.
But he says it's not going to deter him or believers from celebrating the birth of Jesus. Other religious leaders say the same thing about the sign.
Patricia Colding can't imagine believing anything else. "Anybody that doesn't believe in the Lord, it doesn't make sense to me. We have a creator."
Incidentally, Freethinkers of Central Arkansas celebrated something called Human Light Day Tuesday. It's a day agnostics and atheists celebrate human life amid a season of religious holidays.
