Billboard Comparing Witch Doctors to Evolution Deniers Goes Up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Dale Hemming, the one-man show behind the Sioux Falls Atheists in South Dakota, has paid for a hell of a lot of billboards (at least 40) over the past year.

He just announced his latest one, comparing evolution deniers of today to witch doctors of the past because of their collective science denial.

(Graphic designers: This would be a good time to swallow whatever you’re drinking before you see the image and spit it all out…)

I’m no artist, but maybe the part about “witch doctors across the ages” could’ve been a little larger and stretching across the entire sign…?

What’s this all about anyway?

“They’re no different than that thing, back in Africa 4,000 years ago that said ‘we’re going to worship the skull’ or do horrible things to people because I say so because I’m the witch doctor. Then we had the inquisition, and that’s why it’s the centerpiece because that was a Christian thing,” Hemming said.

While Hemming didn’t say how much he paid for the sign, similar billboards can run up to $4,500 a month. And Hemming plans to put up another “13 Static Billboards and 12 Digital Billboards” before long (presumably with the same design). This one will stay up through June 18.

All this, and the man still goes to church.

“I go to the church because they are good people there. They have many events that are charity events, and I contribute to charities. I contributed more than $50,000 to charities last year, but no one cares about that. I put up a billboard they don’t agree with so cut his head off. ‘Burn him at the stake out there,’ that’s what they would like to do,” Hemming said.

I’ve said for a long time that the ultimate purpose of these kinds of billboards isn’t to convert people — they’re not about to shed their faith while driving past a sign — but to get media attention. To that end, the design doesn’t really matter, since it’s all about what message the media talks about. But I’ll be damned if this doesn’t stretch that theory to the limit…