A giant ad promoting atheism has been unveiled on a billboard in northeast Calgary.
Previously seen in Vancouver and Sudbury, the ad informs Calgarians that "praying won't help."
“I know that some people are immediately going to be offended by it and see it as an attack on religion,” Nate Phelps, Alberta executive director of the Centre for Inquiry, the group behind the ad, told Metro Calgary.
“But I hope that some religious people are at a point in their life that they’re willing to look at this as a challenge, and consider it.”
The billboard features a young woman at her computer with the caption “Jenn 13:1 - Praying won’t help. Doing will. Without God. We’re all good,” and is located on the south side of 3603A Edmonton Tr. N.E.
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Atheist Billboards
“There exists an idea out there that you can’t be good, you can’t be hopeful, you can’t be positive, you can’t lead a good life unless you subscribe to some religious ideology,” Phelps told 660 News.
Some Reddit users were quick to claim hypocrisy in the ad, however.
"This is stupid because it's likely the people who are putting up that billboard would be the type to tell Christians to not shove their beliefs down their necks," wrote user Yojimbe.
"If this sign was fashioned against any other group it would be immediately shot down and that's where I take issue," said urahozer.
Others, however, believe there's a place - and even a need - for the ad in Calgary.
"It'll be nice to have something on the other side displayed for once. I'm rather tired of fake images of aborted fetuses, so while Jen 13:1 could have been done better, I'll take it," countered Wistfuljali, referring to ads placed around Calgary by anti-abortion groups.
"While I think they could have used a better slogan or mantra for it, the message behind it isn't about believing or not believing. It's about believers respecting those who don't, and challenging the social stigma attached to non-theists," said jimmyjames88.
The same ad was banned in Vancouver late last year, after Pattison Outdoor - a company who owns many Vancouver billboards - refused to run it. Instead, the ads found a home on the city's downtown transit shelters and on billboards in Burnaby.