The billboards sit on either side of the roadway near Newport Boulevard. (KTLA-TV / October 28, 2011) |
COSTA MESA, Calif. (KTLA) -- An atheist group has posted a controversial message in a public place -- and may lack the facts to back it.
The billboards quote Thomas Jefferson as saying "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology."
But the Jefferson Library said there's no evidence to indicate that the former president ever said or wrote that.
Despite admitting that Thomas Jefferson may have been misquoted on the billboards, which sit on either side of the roadway near Newport Boulevard, the Backyard Skeptics stand behind the message and welcome the attention -- both negative and positive.
"Backyard Skeptics is welcoming this attention because it does let other people know about our group," group head Brian Gleason told KTLA. "In general this is a plus for us even though we didn't plan it that way."
Gleason says that the group didn't know that the quote was inaccurate until after the billboards had been put up.
An anonymous donor with the group paid $4 thousand for the billboards to be up on either side of the roadway near Newport Boulevard for two weeks.
The billboards quote Thomas Jefferson as saying "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology."
But the Jefferson Library said there's no evidence to indicate that the former president ever said or wrote that.
Despite admitting that Thomas Jefferson may have been misquoted on the billboards, which sit on either side of the roadway near Newport Boulevard, the Backyard Skeptics stand behind the message and welcome the attention -- both negative and positive.
"Backyard Skeptics is welcoming this attention because it does let other people know about our group," group head Brian Gleason told KTLA. "In general this is a plus for us even though we didn't plan it that way."
Gleason says that the group didn't know that the quote was inaccurate until after the billboards had been put up.
An anonymous donor with the group paid $4 thousand for the billboards to be up on either side of the roadway near Newport Boulevard for two weeks.
