Tulsa's Godless Groups Organize with Billboard, Book Tour

A new outdoor billboard prominently proclaiming that people can be good without God is now appearing in Tulsa.

The sign, "Are you good without God? Millions are," is located on I-44 West at Elwood and is visible to westbound traffic. It is sponsored by Tulsa CoR, the Tulsa Coalition of Reason, and is part of a nationwide campaign.

Consisting of nontheistic (humanist, atheist and agnostic) groups in the greater Tulsa area, Tulsa CoR seeks to raise public awareness that people can be good without believing in a god, according to a press release.  Funding has been provided by United CoR, the United Coalition of Reason.

Tied to the billboard campaign is a publicity tour on a new book, "Good without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe," authored by Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University.

 Epstein will be speaking in Tulsa this week.

"The point of our national billboard campaign is to reach out to the millions of humanists, atheists and agnostics living in the United States," explained Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason. "Nontheists sometimes don't realize there's a community out there for them because they're inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren't alone."

Added Bill Dusenberry, coordinator of Tulsa CoR, "People often think you can't be moral if you don't believe in a supreme being. The truth is, we organized secularists are involved in moral issues and social activism more than most people. Now it's time that information got out."

Epstein will speak Thursday, from 7-9 p.m. on the subject "How to Be Good Without God" at
All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 South Peoria Ave.

On Friday, Epstein will sign copies of his book from noon to 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Bookstore
8620 E. 71st
These events are free and open to the public.

The United Coalition of Reason launched a dozen advertising campaigns previously this year. Each involved billboards or public transit ads. They appeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago, Illinois, Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Morgantown, West Virginia; Newark, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; and Portland, Oregon.