Secular Student Alliance: Atheists, Humanists, Agnostics & Others - On Campus

Secular Alliance at Indiana University Makes a Statement

19-September-2008

This was Sarah Kaiser's statement for the Secular Alliance of IU (at Indiana University Bloomington) callout meeting on September 11, 2008. The group, of which she is president, decided that it should have a semi-formal callout meeting at which the president stood up and spoke about what the group is and what they want to do, as well as talk about upcoming events and activities.

You might be wondering: what is the Secular Alliance and what does it mean to be "secular"? Secular is a word that encompasses many nonreligious philosophies, which include atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, freethought, and humanism, among others. It can mean many different things, but in the context of our group, secularism is simple—it focuses on the assertion that one can lead an ethical, fulfilling, and complete life without religion or supernatural belief. It is also a social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. Thus, secularism can be involved in the promotion of science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.

Inmates Can Reform Without Religion

6-September-2008

Activist: Inmates Can Recover Without Religion

Freethought Books Project Challenges Faith-Based Dominance in Prisons

Portland, OR - Prisoners can reform without God, atheist activist says.

The Freethought Books Project, founded by activist Leslie A. Zukor of the Reed Secular Alliance, has been promoting secular reform among prisoners since the fall of 2005. The group has collected over 2,000 books free of religious content and distributed them to prison libraries, individual inmates, and prison-donating organizations.

"The goal of our project is to show inmates that they can lead an ethical life without God", said Zukor.

New SSA Resources for Student Groups

4-September-2008

One of the most important things the SSA does for its affiliates is provide those student groups with services and resources. You can always find these listed at our Group Services page. We've been adding and revising those resources over the summer and are excited to bring them to your attention!

First, we have the Flyer Exchange. This is a forum where you can download templates for various flyers for advertising your group and its events, or upload and share templates of your own successful flyers.

Welcome New Affiliates!

25-August-2008

The SSA is growing faster than ever! Since the beginning of April, we've gained seventeen new affiliate groups and now have a total of 151 affiliate groups. We had only 90 groups as we headed into fall of 2007-the secular student movement really seems to be coming into its own. Let's welcome our new members!

Atheist & Agnostic Alliance
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON-ROYAL HOLLOWAY
Facebook Page
Group E-Mail: rhul(AT)secularstudents(DOT)org

Atheism at Dartmouth

20-August-2008

This is the first of a three-part series by Alex DiBranco.

“Now that I know atheists can be moral—” I burst into laughter, interrupting Catherine, a Dartmouth junior and Catholic friend of mine. She frowned. “I’m serious,” she said, continuing with her statement—now that she knew, she could possibly date an atheist.

When I decided to write an article looking into perspectives on atheism for my journalism class, I wasn’t quite prepared for many of the responses I would get, even from amongst my own friends. The default assumption that atheists cannot be moral could still bring me to occasional incredulous laughter at the end of my research, despite having been confronted with a number of responses from intelligent young persons, my peers, telling me that, as an atheist, I lack morals.

Non-communion-wafer-eating Florida Student to be on Freethought Radio

17-July-2008

Webster Cook, a 19-year-old junior at Central Florida University (Orlando) who has recently been in the news for leaving a Catholic Mass with a sacred Communion wafer uneaten, will be on Freethought Radio this Saturday (7/19/08). Catholics have accused him of committing a "hate crime" for not eating the communion wafer during the ceremony! Cook sits on the CFU student senate and his fellow student senators at CFU have begun impeachment proceedings over the matter.

The Secular Student Alliance Launches The Exchange

10-July-2008

The Secular Student Alliance is proud to announce the launch of the new and improved Flyer Exchange, a library of flyers used by campus groups around the country. The SSA has always felt that the most valuable resource within the student movement is the ingenuity and creativity of its grassroots activists. Drawing on this, the SSA is dedicated to creating an online library filled with flyers and posters that student freethought groups across the country have successfully utilized on their campuses.

You can view the current collection of flyers at the Exchange here. The SSA sees the Exchange as a clearinghouse for flyer designs that have been tried and tested on campuses across the country. However, we hope you will not only gain ideas from the posters in the gallery, but also offer your posters to be posted so that all of the other affiliates can benefit from your ideas too! This resource allows student groups to post their own designs, as well as utilize or modify what others have designed. The Exchange will help campus groups flourish by allowing group leaders to build on each other's successes.

Atheists to the Rescue: Changing Misconceptions and Rebuilding after Katrina

12-June-2008

University of Illinois Campus Crusade for Christ and Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers

Spring Break Trip 2008
(Learn how to organize your own service trip with our service trip activity packet.)

“Being around a group of people of antithetical beliefs while working toward a common goal was

both rewarding and fun: rewarding because we were able to put our differences aside to help

the cause and fun because there was never a dull moment in conversations."

-Peter Ho, member of AA&F

Forgoing Faith

11-June-2008

This article was originally featured in The Daily of the University of Washington on June 5th, 2008 and is reprinted with permission.

Article by Samantha Park

Photo by Cliff Despeaux.

The SSU screens and discusses the 2006 documentary film Jesus Camp during a meeting.

Senior biology major Alicia Godersky grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, in a secular family. Neither she nor her sister ever had any sort of beliefs forced upon them. Instead, they were both expected to figure things out on their own.

Now, Godersky considers herself an atheist. She said her family is atheist as well, even though they consider themselves agnostic.

So, what does that mean?

“Atheism is a rejection of faith as a means of finding truth,” Godersky said.

Merriam-webster.com defines religion as “the service and worship of God or the supernatural” and “a cause, principle or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and the many different faiths that fall under the umbrella of Christianity would fit under this definition — along with many others. But would atheism and agnosticism fall under the category of “religion?”

Some would say that yes, they are religions, but most people who are atheist or agnostic would be hard-pressed to support that argument.

In short, atheists are sure to a certain degree that there is no god, whereas agnostics are unsure or unwilling (or both) to declare whether or not there is one.

However, Godersky said that both groups reject organized religion for similar reasons.

Secular Student Alliance Board Member Matthew LaClair Published in L.A. Times

27-April-2008

Matthew LaClair will be presenting at the 2008 Secular Student Alliance conference. This conference is being held jointly with the conference of the American Humanist Association and the world congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Secular Student Alliance board member Matthew LaClair is the author of an Op-Ed piece in the April 27 edition of the LA Times. In it, he talks about the recent controversy where a nationally used American Government textbook was found to contain several mistakes and conservative bias. Matthew, with the help of the Center for Inquiry, alerted the publishers of the book (along with the media) about these problems. The full report can be found on the Center's website.

Matthew urges students to not remain silent when these misstatements occur. He writes:

What is most distressing is not that some public school teachers preach their religion, or that some authors put politics ahead of education. It is that it is so rare for anyone to call them on it. This text is widely used. Yet to my knowledge, no one has challenged these incorrect and misleading statements.

Fiction for Fiction

19-April-2008

From friendlyatheist.com

A few weeks ago, Jennifer at Purdue University threw out the idea of having people swap their Bibles (or other religious texts) for novels: Fiction for Fiction.

The event took place recently and Jennifer gave us an update:

We ended up receiving a bunch of books, mainly Bibles or other Christian spiritual books. We also had people turn in a Book of Mormon, the Tanakh, and two Bhagavad Gitas. While we did get a lot of glares or confused looks from people passing by, we also got a ton of smiles. It was great to have people come up and thank us for having the event (since Purdue almost always has people passing out Bibles or preaching). A lot of theists (mostly Christian) came up to ask what we were doing. Once we explained that we were trying to promote critical thinking of what you read (and that we weren’t burning the books), many of them supported our message. On our second day we were actually set up next to a Baptist group handing out free popcorn, but they were the nicest of all.

Help sustain the explosive growth of the secular student movement - and get matching funds until April 11th

4-April-2008

Mobilizing Students for a New Enlightenment
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Talk about ideas seriously.

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Think it is more important that we can live together than that we all agree.

See democracy as an ideal worth living up to.

Believe science and reason lead to more reliable knowledge than faith.

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The Secular Student Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible in the U.S.

Apr. 3, 2008

It isn’t often that a non-profit leader has the opportunity to report that his organization has grown more than 84% in a single year. But that's exactly what I have the pleasure of doing today. Since this time last year, the campus affiliate base of the Secular Student Alliance has increased 84%, from 70 active groups in 2007 to 129 groups as I write this e-mail.

This phenomenal growth is great news for the SSA – it means we’re reaching previously unimagined heights in our mission to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human based ethics. But as chair of the board, I realize it also represents a daily challenge for our tiny staff as they struggle to meet the needs of a much larger than expected crop of freethinking young adults preparing to move into leadership roles in business, government, education, and culture.

The SSA must raise $30,000 by June 1st to keep this momentum going. And we have a $4,000 head start toward our goal, thanks to the generosity of two donors. But there is another exciting development, made possible by a third generous supporter.

Every donation that reaches the SSA by April 11th will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $3,000. Your gift can go twice as far, just by giving it now.

The $100 that would have covered speaker expenses for one campus group can now be leveraged for a second speaker on a second campus. The $500 that would have funded a regional activist training session for campus leaders can now be cloned in another region of the country.

The matching funds for a $1,250 donation will allow us to hire an intern for an entire summer. (You should see the amazing resumes we've been receiving.) But every gift, large or small, is very noticed, very appreciated, and very carefully spent at the SSA. If you can't support us at one of these levels, please consider an amount that's comfortable for you. Your donation will be precious to us no matter what its size.

Every bit of our work at the SSA is funded by atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other freethinkers who care about secular youth. We are an independent, democratic organization which would not exist except for the generosity and loyalty of our many friends in the freethought movement. Please click one of the donation options in the sidebar by April 11th to take advantage of the matching funds. Thousands of bright, young freethinkers are counting on your support to bring about a more rational future guided by secular values.

With thanks,
Hemant Mehta, Chair
Secular Student Alliance
www.secularstudents.org

P.S. I almost forgot to mention the vital role played by SSA affiliate groups on college campuses. They provide a welcoming and stimulating community for students without supernatural beliefs, some of whom are open about their worldview for the first time in their lives. But there is still so much progress to be made! Please click one of the donation options in the sidebar so we can do more to bring this experience to every freethinking student.

First Freedom First Simulcast Event in a Theater Near You

23-March-2008

37 Cities to Feature Movie Theater Event Focusing on Need for Church-State Separation in 2008 Elections

The Secular Student Alliance is proud to promote the First Freedom First program: “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Separation of Church and State…But Were Afraid to Ask” March 26.

Actors, musicians and comedians will join church-state community members across the country on Wednesday evening, March 26, 2008 to put church-state separation on the national agenda during the 2008 election season.

Peter Coyote, celebrated Hollywood actor and filmmaker, will emcee the program, which will include such special guests as The Bacon Brothers (featuring actor Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael), actors Michael J. Fox; Jack Klugman; James Whitmore; Wendie Malick; Dan Lauria; and Catherine Dent; comedian and Air America host Marc Maron; singer/songwriter Catie Curtis and satirist Roy Zimmerman.

Student Government: Atheist Student Alliance funding disputed

22-March-2008

From front to back: Ryan Iacovacci, Peter Baker,
Benjamin Brown and Kenan Arodak debated funding for the Atheist Student Alliance at Tuesday's SG Senate Meeting. ORACLE PHOTO/MIKE WILSON

This story originally appeared in the Oracle (the campus newspaper of the University of South Florida) on 3/19/08, and is used by permission.
Article by Candace Kaw, Staff Writer for the Oracle.

A bill for funding for the Atheist Student Alliance was passed after heavy debate during Tuesday's SG Senate meeting, after senators said the group was immoral and had requested too much money.

Bill 48-055 requested $1171.30 for the club and was sponsored by Sen. Dan Shelnutt of the Interim Funding and Transfers Committee. Of that money, $775 was requested for food for meet-and-greets, Bull Market booths, meetings and guest lectures.

Sen. Charles Sherrard, who is majoring in political science, voted against the bill.

"I disapprove. These kinds of organizations are dangerous for our society," Sherrard said.

Paid Southern California Campus Organizing Internship

19-March-2008

The Secular Student Alliance is seeking applicants for its Southern California Campus Organizing Internship (COI). This internship pays $10/hr. and all expenses are covered. This internship will require approximately 10 hours a week. The internship will start in late March or early April and last through early June of 2008 with an option to extend the internship or restart it in the fall. We are willing to be somewhat flexible in terms of time and stipend to meet academic requirements.

While approximately half of the work for this position can be done from any location of the Campus Organizing Intern's choosing, the other half will involve working directly on campuses in Southern California. Again, all travel costs will be covered. The position offers a highly flexible schedule.

The Campus Organizing Intern will help organize and support students who do not see theism as the source of morality--this includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, brights, rationalists and other non-theists. Duties will include working in person and remotely with student groups on campuses in Southern California to improve their operations, provide them with resources and network them with each other and the broader secular movement. SSA senior staff will provide training, direction, and assistance with all of these tasks. The COI will also work to start groups on campuses without groups via flyering, tabling and networking. The position will involve some traveling, public speaking, record keeping, lots of phone and email communication, and some possible resource development.