Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

Lane Michael Lareau
Purdue University Calumet
The Slavery of Religion: A Look at Reason and Religion in America
with A Rhetorical Analysis of the Secular Billboard Campaigns
Good without God? Apparently millions are not. In this essay, I argue that the billboard campaigns
funded by secular organizations, including United Coalition of Reason and Freedom From Religion
Foundation, fail to create convergence with the U.S. public by presenting a rhetorical vision that says “unity
is found in the personal choice to abandon religion” through fantasy themes of heroic reason, villainous God
and the hindrance of religion to a society that rejects this interpretation of reality.
In light of 9/11, we find ourselves in a country with an ever-polarizing society. The political right
and the political left. Conservatives and liberals. Religious toleration and religious extremists. Yet, it is
within this reality that secularist organizations throughout the United States have chosen to post billboards,
specifically in the “Bible-belt” South, seeking to bolster their secular community while further increasing the
divide between the religious and the non-religious.
These campaigns are designed “to reach out to the millions of humanists, atheists and agnostics
living in the United States” (“Atheist Billboard”). The billboards have sprung up in major cities throughout
the U.S., including Chicago, Dallas, Portland, Phoenix, Newark, New York City, and Boston (“What’s
New” 2009). The objective for these organizations, specifically by UnitedCoR, is to provide “an
organizational structure wherein local groups in the community of reason come together cooperatively to
raise their public profiles, grow their organizations, and help generate national dialogue on the legitimacy of
religious skepticism” (“Frequently Asked Questions”).
For this critical analysis essay, I want to evaluate the intended persuasive messages created for the
billboards by secular organizations and their effects upon both the secularist and religious communities. For
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