Secular Student Alliance: Atheists, Humanists, Agnostics & Others - Articles

Atheist Students and Leaders Participate in White House Briefing

8-February-2010

This story originally appeared on Unreasonable Faith on March 1, 2010. Used here with permission.

By Jesse Galef

The atheist movement made a big step last Friday when the Secular Coalition for America arranged a policy briefing with White House officials. A delegation of about 60 nontheists convened in the nation's capital to engage with the administration. I can't repeat what the administration said – these meetings are held off the record – but I can say that I've never felt more proud and optimistic about the political status of atheists.

A Polite Response to an Impolite Article

29-January-2010

Lucy Gubbins is the president of the Alliance of Happy Atheists, a secular student group at the University of Oregon. In January, their campus newspaper made the strange decision to reprint an anti-atheist screed which had first been published at Portland State University three months earlier. Lucy mobilized her group to respond with polite letters to the editor. Here's the letter she got printed:

Reprinting anti-atheism commentary offensive, lacking balance

Lucy Gubbins, President of the UO Alliance of Happy Atheists

By Lucy Gubbins | President, Alliance of Happy Atheists

So Help Us God In The Courthouse

7-January-2010

by Sarah Silverman

In December, I traveled to Washington, DC, where I stopped at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. On that day, atheist lawyer and physician Dr. Michael Newdow was scheduled to present his oral argument in his appeal of Newdow v. Roberts, a religious liberty case against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and others responsible for the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama. There were 252 additional plaintiffs who joined Newdow in the suit, including myself and my father.

Shelley Mountjoy Wins American Atheists Scholarship

19-November-2009

by Leslie A. Zukor

Congratulations to Shelley Mountjoy, a telecommunications graduate student at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, the second-place recipient of the 2009 American Atheists scholarship. Each year, American Atheists awards three scholarships to outstanding student activists, including a $2,000 first-place award, a $1,000 second-place prize, and a third $1,000 award for an LGBT atheist student activist. Check out past issues of the eMpirical for our articles on the other 2009 scholarship recipients, Andrew Cederdahl and Jon Adams.

Release: Secular Student Alliance Reports Record Numbers of Atheist, Agnostic Students Organizing on Campus

2-September-2009

Columbus, OH - College students who consider themselves non-religious or doubting will return to campus this fall with a better chance than ever of finding or starting groups of like-minded young people, according to the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), the national umbrella organization for the secular student movement. The SSA's Labor Day 2009 count of campus affiliate groups is 159, up from 100 in 2008 and 80 in 2007.

“It’s been a challenge to keep up with the demand for services, especially group-starting packets and follow-up,” said Lyz Liddell, senior campus organizer. “That’s a nice problem to have.”

New Resources for your Secular Student Group

21-August-2009

The Secular Student Alliance has been hard at work over the summer, creating new resources to help you run your group!

We're excited to announce our new line of Activity Packets, designed to help you get a snapshot view as well as step-by-step instructions for holding events and activities with your group. Whether it's organizing activist training, sponsoring a blood drive, bringing in a speaker, or giving your group mohawks, we have a packet for you. Head over to www.secularstudents.org/activitypackets and see what we can help you with!

University of Melbourne Secular Society Challenges Prayer in Parliament

20-August-2009

This story originally appeared on the University of Melbourne Secular Society website on 7/22/09, and is reprinted with permission.

Since 1901, Parliamentary Standing Orders have compelled the [Australian] House & Senate to open daily with a recital of this exclusively Christian prayer:

Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers Leadership Grant Opportunity

18-August-2009

$500 educational grant for military & nontheist leadership and activism!

www.maaf.info/leadergrant.html
Applications taken through October 13th, 2009

The military has always been a source of leaders in the United States. The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers would like to encourage and support nontheistic military student leaders. MAAF is partnering with the Secular Student Alliance to find up-and-coming leaders. MAAF will award $500 to a student leader who has demonstrated excellence in both military and nontheistic activities. The military includes both current and prior service, all branches, and particularly ROTC and academy cadets. Nontheistic activities include participation in student or non-student organizations with atheist, humanist, agnostic or other nontheistic focuses. In each area, leadership, volunteerism, and awards should be included.

Secular Student Alliance Creation Museum Trip Highlighted on ABC News

2-August-2009

ABC News covered the Secular Student Alliance's Creation Museum Trip. You can read the story here until we get permission to reprint it on the site.

In the meantime, if you'd like to support the SSA and the work we do, please consider making a donation and help us spread reason and science to students across the country.

Research Opportunity: "Out" Atheists among a Family of Believers

10-July-2009

The Process and Experience of Deciding to Live Openly as an Atheist in a Family of Believers:
A Qualitative Study

1.   Are you an atheist?
2.   Did you grow up in a religious household?
3.   Have you fully disclosed your atheism to your family members and live openly as an atheist?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, you may be eligible to be part of a focus group study hoping to learn more about the process of disclosure for atheists who decide to reveal their atheism to family members of faith.

Atheists Need to Fight Against Violent Hate Speech

20-June-2009

At this year’s American Humanist Association conference, Jason Frye (Humanist Association of San Diego) called for a moment of silence to remember the murder of Dr. George Tiller. His assassination, in itself tragic, has not only closed a door to safe, legal abortion in Wichita. It also intimidates women, doctors, and ordinary citizens across the nation. However, for almost the entire remainder of the conference, a resounding silence surrounded the subject.

As freethinkers, we desperately need to say why Dr. Tiller was murdered. We need to talk about it – and talk loudly – or our silence will absolutely lead to more deaths, more tragedies, and vastly restricted access to women’s healthcare.

Society of Non-Theists Holds Annual Fiction for Fiction Event

4-June-2009

Jen McCreight runs the blog Blag Hag, where she talks about atheism, life in the midwest, and more. She is also the leader of the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue University. Her group runs an annual "Fiction for Fiction" event where they accept religious texts in exchange for novels. Here, Jen blogs about her group's latest endeavor and encourages you to explore your own "Fiction for Fiction" event!

Every April the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue University holds its annual controversial event, Fiction for Fiction. The premise behind Fiction for Fiction is that students can come trade in religious texts (the Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita, etc.) for novels. It was originally inspired by the Smut for Smut event (in which religious texts are traded in for pornography), but we didn't want to be quite so inflammatory (or lynched), so we toned it down a bit. It's honestly the "worst" thing we do on campus, but so far we haven't had any major issues.

Students for Freethought at OSU: Spring Break in New Orleans

27-May-2009

Article by Ashley Paramore, 08-09 chair of Students for Freethought at the Ohio State University.

I've always been one to get involved in some type of community service projects, AIDS or MS walks, or collecting canned goods. When I went to the American Humanist Association's conference with the Secular Student Alliance last year, I heard Ashley Carter from the University of Illinois Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers give a talk about her group's service trip to New Orleans with Campus Crusade for Christ. After listening for a while, I couldn't help but think to myself, “Why haven't we thought of that?'

"That’s the Way God Made It:” Lessons from a High School Chemistry Teacher

27-May-2009

By Leslie A. Zukor

“Why does a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate crystallize when heat is added?” one student asked in Chemistry class. What seemed to be a routine question about straightforward science was anything but straightforward for the students at St. Thomas Episcopal High School in Houston, Texas.

“That’s the way God made it,” the teacher quipped, avoiding the question. While the instructor was obviously joking, it underscored a concern about the role of religion in a science classroom. This was Honors Chemistry, and here a teacher was appealing to divine sanction in what was supposed to be a course about the chemical building blocks of life.

UnitedCOR Essay Contest: Good Without God

26-May-2009

The United Coalition of Reason is delighted to announce an essay contest as part of our upcoming Good Without God campaign tied not only to a social movement but to a book that's being published in the fall. Please forward this message as widely as possible and help us unite the millions of voices of reason across the country.