The bus ads from the Freedom From Religion Foundation that have cropped up in Europe are now appearing in Chicago, encouraging people not to go to church:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation plastered more signs on 75 Chicago buses this week encouraging Chicagoans to skip church and sleep in on Sundays. But that’s just the beginning.

Riders also will see 200 interior bus signs with quotations from five famous freethinkers or skeptics, including author Mark Twain, attorney Clarence Darrow, poets Carl Sandburg and Emily Dickinson; and actresses Butterfly McQueen and Katharine Hepburn.The interior ads also will feature a provocative quote from Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”

“Obviously, there are many reasons to reject religion, most of them intellectual,” said Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. “But face it — one of the immediate benefits of quitting church, besides getting a 10 percent raise because you can stop tithing, is getting to sleep in on Sundays! What the world really needs is a good night’s sleep.”

The foundation started advocating sleep after the slogan was deemed too controversial in Australia.

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