Has your club finally gotten recognition from the University of Michigan?  How were you able to raise awareness about your SSA Chapter?

Yes, we're now an officially recognized student group, with our own group account with Student Organizations Account Services. In practice, this doesn't mean much, but on paper it looks good, and in theory we are eligible for grant funding. Also, we are now affiliated with the Philosophy Department, which means we get our pizza paid for (They yell at me for tipping too much, though!).  To raise awareness, we have held regular meetings, served free pizza, told our friends, posted fliers, hosted a few events – all the usual things.

The most spectacular thing we've done so far was host a talk by a local professor, Carl Cohen, on Darwin Day.  He is noted for his unusual and original political views, combining atheism, Humanism, Marxism, and liberal stances on LGBT issues and contraception, with opposition to affirmative action, abortion, and animal rights.  This was the most successful and well-attended event our group has yet organized, with at least 50 people attending and nearly all saying that they enjoyed the event.

In our last interview, you called yourself a “militant atheist.”  Has your stridence been tempered, due to your activist experience?

I'm not sure about the word “militant” anymore; it has connotations of violence or the threat of violence, which is certainly not something I would support. Perhaps it would be better to call me “confident” or “vociferous” or (to use Sam Harris's term) “conversationally intolerant.” ...I believe in challenging religion through speech and dialogue, questioning ideas that are considered “sacred,” but to call me militant is probably too strong. I should be more careful with my semantics.

Is the University of Michigan SSA Chapter still primarily a philosophy discussion group?  Or have you done more in the way of secularist advocacy?

I want to move on from philosophy discussion; we've done a lot of that, and not enough in terms of outreach or activism. I think we're running the risk of becoming navel-gazing, and I don't want that to happen. This coming year we're going to do some more serious outreach activities.  Our plans will be determined after some brainstorming sessions once school starts again.

Besides bringing a speaker, what have been the key accomplishments of your club in the two years since the first interview?  What do you feel the most proud of in your tenure as President?

We've spent most of this time getting established, which I suppose is reasonable for the first couple of years. We now have official recognition, a continuous source of free food, funding opportunities, and the like. We've established a presence as an institution.  But I want to do more; I'm not happy with the little we have done in terms of activism so far.

How has secular activism impacted you?  Are you still of the opinion that religion is destructive and harmful?
 
If anything, I think I'm more confident of that than I was two years ago. I've spent time with other freethinkers, many of whom are the most sensible, kind, and intelligent people I know; I've seen the way people feel liberated when they finally abandon religion. I've seen the way religious evangelists become self-loathing in their obsessive legalistic “morality”; I've had preachers on street corners denounce me for my [bisexual] sexual orientation; I've been to lectures by people so indoctrinated with Puritanical moralities that they become ashamed of things as innocuous as bikini photos and masturbation. ...I've seen the continuing idiocy of the intelligent design movement, culminating in Ben Stein's ludicrous film. I even got the chance to write a popular and controversial opinion in my local newspaper denouncing intelligent design.

I've also learned some psychology in the interim – my [major] field is now Cognitive Science – and learned about the ways that religion substitutes for healthy psychological coping mechanisms and ends up creating sexual neuroses. In this sense, religion can be called a contagious mental disorder.  I've also learned to recognize the techniques of persuasion and manipulation that religion uses – the guilt it induces by inventing meaningless “sins” (coveting? lust? pride? Basic emotions, now labeled by fiat as immoral), thus making everyone a sinner; it then offers “salvation” from horrors of its own design, horrors like “Hell,” which can be said on public television, whereas “fuck” cannot. I personally consider the idea of a place of eternal torment so horrible it makes Auschwitz seem like Disneyland – especially when it is taught to children and unsupported by evidence – a lot more offensive than the idea of sexual intercourse!

Religion convinces you that there is something wrong with you, and then convinces you that it is the only way to fix you. It manipulates your emotions to bypass your cognitive analysis. Actually, this is the same technique used in brainwashing; it's the same type of aggressive psychological and emotional manipulation meant to persuade you into believing particular ideas regardless of their truth.  But really, I think a lot of this is beside the point: it's worth noting that religion can be socially and psychologically damaging, and this is all the more reason to get rid of it; but even if it weren't, even if on the whole the consequences of religious belief were benign or even positive – that wouldn't be enough reason to keep it. A happy delusion is still a delusion; a pleasant lie is still a lie. The most important point to be made here is not that religion is bad, but that religion is false. That fact alone is sufficient reason not to believe it, in the same way we don't believe that the Earth is flat or that unicorns live on Mars.

What advice would you give to a prospective group leader?
 
Do more than we have done. Speak out more. Be more active, more vocal. We sat quietly and found ourselves accepted, but at the same time we weren't being nearly as effective as we might have. We tried very hard not to offend people, but as a result we censored ourselves, too afraid to say anything of substance. Be bolder than we have been – don't be afraid to offend. Right from the start, be assertive, even aggressive.

What are your goals as a club President?

I want to do more outreach, more activism. I want to be heard, to be noticed, even if it means people will be offended. I'm tired of getting together for little meetings and talking about nuanced philosophical issues while I get fat on pizza and soft drinks. I want to be inviting speakers, hosting rallies, posting fliers that make a few people angry and a lot of people think. I'm tired of being neutered by our own self-censorship, trying so hard to be “friendly” to religious people that we lose sight of our capacity – even duty – to make change in the world. I want t-shirts that say “Michigan Freethinker” – they already have “Michigan Engineering” for the Engineering Department, “Michigan Linguistics” for the Linguistics Department, “Michigan CRU” for Campus Crusade for Christ, etc. – and “Flamboyantly Atheist”; I want to print more issues of [our newsletter] Brightly Illuminated and distribute them in little envelopes right next to the newsletter Christ is Victor that is posted all around campus. I want to organize counter-protests and read Norse mythology or J.R.R. Tolkien next to the preachers who read Bible verses.  Basically, I want to do more.

Thank you for your time, Patrick, and we appreciate you sharing your experiences!