Atheist billboards mock Romney, Obama religion

Hey, President Obama and contender Mitt Romney, the American Atheists want your attention. They're unveiling a new in-your-face-to-the-faithful billboard campaign, timed to the national presidential nominating conventions.

Today's press conference revealed signs that call God "sadistic" and Jesus "useless" as a savior (his image is show as toast, literally) and conclude that Atheism, by contrast, is "simply reasonable."

Presumably, Catholics such as Vice President Biden and Romney's running mate choice Paul Ryan, are covered in this hit on Christians such as Obama, a mainline Protestant.

But evidently the American Atheists don't consider Mormons to be Christians, since they prepared a separate billboard attack on their faith. It derides their idea of God as a "space alien" and notes that Mormons offer a proxy baptism to dead relatives -- a practice the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acknowledges has gotten out of hand with some believers inappropriately baptizing Holocaust victims and others not related to their own families.

But GOP delegates won't see the attack on their faith on their way to nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in Tampa. Spokeswoman Teresa MacBain says no one in Tampa would rent them billboard space. So watch for both texts in Charlotte, N.C., where the Democrats will gather in September.

American Atheists is the group that created and produced the Reason Rally in March on the National Mall -- an event president David Silverman billed as a fun gathering starring raging atheists such as Richard Dawkins.

But Silverman's idea of "fun" may not align with that of the faithful his group loves to jab. As he said then,

We're not the softies. We are proud to be the Marines of free thought, proud to be the edge of the sword.

The same group flew a banner over New York City on the Fourth of July proclaiming, "Atheism is patriotic."

Now, MacBain says, the billboards are aimed at mocking the "silliness" of religion. In an email before today's press conference, she wrote that questioning the religious views of men who want to lead the free world is essential because,

If a person believes stupid things, then we have every right to question his or her judgment, and that directly impacts how the non-religious voter votes.

More demands -- like non-religious people to be appointed to the Cabinet and the Supreme Court -- are at their website.

Interestingly, for all the increasing public presence of unbelievers -- billboards, rallies, conventions, etc. -- the attention has not boosted their percentage of the U.S. population significantly in the last decade.

Most people who say they have no religious identity also call themselves spiritual but not religious, and many give the entire topic a big "so what" shrug.

But the billboards planned for Charlotte, N.C., may not be well received. In 2010, when free thinkers posted an edited version of the line from the Pledge of Allegiance without the phrase "under God," vandals added it with spray paint.

DO YOU THINK ... the billboards will convert anyone away from religion? Is it "simply reasonable" to mock belief?