This FAQ is about the SSA in general.
The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) is an umbrella organization uniting atheist, agnostic, humanist, rationalist, skeptic, and freethought students and groups on high school and campuses across the world. The SSA is dedicated to building secular student communities and promoting freethought, critical thinking, and scientific inquiry. The SSA also defends civil liberties, church-state separation, and religious freedom.
No. The SSA is a non-profit organization that is not affiliated with any particular party or political figure.
No. The freethought movement is dedicated to freeing the human mind of dogma. We have no creed. We seek to better understand our world. We admit we do not fully understand it.
Most of us are atheists. As doubters of religious doctrine, freethinkers generally are atheists or agnostics. Most, of the SSA's members disbelieve in or doubt the existence of a deity.
However, skepticism of religious dogma is only a part of what defines the SSA. Among other things, supporters of the SSA believe in religious liberty; church/state separation; the humanistic notions of equal rights and the inherent dignity of every human being; the importance of science and critical thinking; and the importance of caring for humanity as a whole in the absence of Divine guidance.
No. However, we believe in academic freedom and freedom of inquiry, and do not shrink from presenting rational and scientific critiques of dogma. The SSA also opposes attempts to force beliefs on others. That said, the SSA is a strong supporter of church-state separation and the religious liberty: the right of every person to believe and worship as he or she pleases, or not to do so at all.
Spirituality is a complex concept. In one sense we are very spiritual--in the sense of the term "spiritual" as it refers to a strong sense of emotion, such as a deep appreciation of the arts or a sense of wonder at the scale or beauty of the universe, i.e., the "poetry of science." This sense of spirituality is compatible with freethought. Many great freethinkers talk and write emotionally about their respect and awe for the size and age of the universe, the beauty of science, or the power of the arts.
However, we reject leaping from statements about emotions to factual claims about the universe. Freethinkers take "spiritual" claims that deal with the physical universe very skeptically.
Affiliating your group with the SSA and getting access to our affiliate services is free. The primary task of the SSA is to support atheist/humanist/freethought/skeptic groups on high school and college campuses.
Joining as an individual member is $10/year for students, $25/year for educators and $35/year for other non-students. The SSA is a democratic membership organization and these members not only elect our board of directors but also provide a significant amount of the money that lets SSA support affiliate groups.
Yes. The SSA seeks to build bridges between students, graduates, national organizations, community groups, and campus organizations. In order to do so, the SSA seeks to build cooperative relationships with all freethought-oriented organizations, by building mutually beneficial relationships, encouraging co-sponsorship of events, and helping students find groups that fit them as they graduate and leave their campus organizations. We have a section of our advisory board devoted to representatives from other organizations.
Cooperation is a core value of the SSA and we even has a section of our web site devoted to stories about cooperation.
It is also worth noting that the SSA is proud to be a voting member of the Secular Coalition for America.
The SSA is a non-profit public charity that receives funding through tax-deductible donations from individuals and organizations.
We invite members of the general public to join our organization. If you would like to support us but don't want to join for whatever reason, you're welcome to simply give a donation.
From 2000 to 2006, we have received over $110,000 in support from the Institute for Humanist Studies' Grant Program. We are deeply grateful to the IHS for their amazing support of our organization and their willing to invest in the future of humanism and secularism.
The SSA is governed by a Board of Directors that is democratically elected by our individual members every two years in February. The Board of Directors have the final say on all SSA decisions (except, obviously, who gets elected to the Board of Directors--which only the membership decides).
The Board of Directors is very open to input from individual members, SSA Staff, volunteers, and the SSA's Advisory Board members. However, only the Board of Directors and membership (in elections) have any actual governing power.
For more exciting details on how the SSA is governed, please consult our Bylaws. (The SSA's Bylaws were updated on 7/3/2008.)
Those of us who use the word atheist to describe ourselves mean to say that we are without theism. We see the burden of proof on the theist to demonstrate that the world is the way she is suggesting it is. Lacking sufficent evidence to persuade us of her claims, we don't believe them. Few if any of us take a "leap of faith" that there is no god. Certianly no more of a leap of faith than most adults do in their lack of belief in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, or the Smurfs.
Humanism is a way of thinking and living that aims to bring out the best in people so that all people can have the best in life. Humanists reject supernatural and authoritarian beliefs--requiring instead beliefs to be based on evidence and reason. They affirm that we must take responsibility for our own lives and for the communities and world in which we live. Humanism emphasizes reason and scientific inquiry, individual freedom and responsibility, human values and compassion, and the need for tolerance and cooperation. Not all members of the SSA are humanists, but a lot are.
As humanism has no central creed, it’s difficult to say if we’re "officially" a humanist organization. There is no doubt that we lean in that direction.
To learn more about humanism, we suggest the following:
Most of us do not, some of us do. By "atheist," most of us mean that we lack theism. All of us take note of the fact that through history "God" and other supernatural beings have been fantastically difficult to think and talk about in a coherent and detailed way—let alone observe or measure.