Just weeks before the religious holidays several new billboards have popped up across the U.S. which appear to be promoting religion - but closer examination reveals the opposite is true.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, comprised of agnostics and atheists, is sponsoring the messages on billboards up in 30 cities.

While ads encouraging separation of church and state are not new - some of these ads skew common religious statements.

One billboard reads "Praise Darwin" after the developer of the theory of evolution.

"We think it's a scandal in this country that so many people are illiterate when it comes to science and that they reject... the information that's right in front of them about evolution and instead think that... they should swallow the Genesis story that we were created in six days," Freedom from Religion co-president Anne Laurie Gaylor said.

So far, the foundation has placed boards in 21 states with a special focus on capital cities.