This month at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a select group of students will show their humanitarian spirit by participating in the Bleedin’ Heathens Blood Drive. On February 12, they will eat cake to celebrate Darwin Day, and earlier this year, they performed “de-baptism” ceremonies to celebrate Blasphemy Day, attended a War on Christmas Party, and set up Hug An Atheist and Ask An Atheist booths in the campus quad.
These activities and more are organized by the Illini Secular Student Alliance (ISSA), one of 394 student groups that are affiliated with the national Secular Student Alliance (SSA). “We brand ourselves as a safe place and community for students who are not religious,” says Derek Miller, a junior at Illini and president of the ISSA.
Secular groups on college campuses are proliferating. The Ohio-based Secular Student Alliance, which a USA Today writer once called a “Godless Campus Crusade for Christ,” incorporated as a nonprofit in 2001. By 2007, 80 campus groups had affiliated with them, 100 by 2008, 174 by 2009, and today there are 394 SSA student groups on campuses across the country. “We have been seeing rapid growth in the past couple of years, and it shows no sign of slowing down,” says Jesse Galef, communications director at SSA. “It used to be that we would go to campuses and encourage students to pass out flyers. Now, the students are coming to us almost faster than we can keep up with.”
Damn where were these groups when I was in college?
Once again, of course, I see this as incredibly good news for the future of the country and certainly hope that this indicates that there will soon come a day when as a nation we throw of the shackles of religiosity and start running this nation in a forward thinking, progressive, secular manner.
Hey I guess Rick Santorum was right:
"You know the statistic that at least I was familiar with from a few years ago — I don’t know if it still holds true but I suspect it may even be worse – that 62 percent of kids who enter college with some sort of faith commitment leave without it."
Except now it sounds as if many students are actually showing up in college with the idea of searching for information that reinforces their secular points of view and searching for like minded organizations to join. And to my mind discovering knowledge that challenges preconceived notions of the reality that was taught to you as a child is kind of what a higher education is all about.
Everyone has their own story about religion. My husband and I were both Catholic and left the Church many years ago. That was even before the sex scandals erupted. Both of us saw so many horrible things done in the name of religion that we just had to get away from all of it. As the years have gone by - has it gotten better or worse? All we have to do is look around us to see how the religious - of any type - will lie, cheat, steal, abuse, kill all in the name of their god.
ReplyDeleteOur two young grandsons - aged 10 and 11 - have no interest in religion. We have exposed them to organized religion in the community we live in. They attended church for awhile and just could not get into it. They both now claim they are atheist. At least their minds will not be cluttered by guilt and false gods.
Pat Padrnos
I'm in this group! Assuredly think that the Republican party group - far right - are some of the cause for people going in this direction.
ReplyDeletePeople do not believe they are true believers (i.e. Sarah Palin and crowd) as they don't act or live the way outlined in the Bible. They are frauds and the majority of people watching and listening to them see right through them.
I "credit" the rise -- and FALL -- of so many televangelists, as well as the rampant pedophilia in the RC Church, for destroying young people's faith in any religion. With such hypocrisy on display, any teenager paying attention is bound to say "I'll have none of that, thank you".
ReplyDeleteHowever, so much of why some young people continue in their "church" is fear of being ostracized by their community. Same goes for older folks who are similarly hurt and offended by their church's shenanigans. But this negative information is so easily and readily available, whereas, when I was growing up, we only heard good things about our church. Now, it's out in the open for all to see, and there is no stuffing it back in the box.
Action, Reaction. Extreme Religiosity, Atheism. Good for these kids! Except they need to know that the word "Heathen" doesn't mean atheist; originally it was used by Christians to refer to those professing belief in Pagan deities.
ReplyDeleteNote to Gryphen: If you like the sound of exploding heads, then head over to the "commercials" on last night's SNL. One was for financial investments for the retiring Pope. The other was a parody of Django and other bloody movies with DJesus going on a rampage. Spoiler alert: You may laugh, but heads exploded in that "commercial" and I'm surprise that doesn't seem to be much outrage on-line. Or, maybe I'm not reading the right blogs.
ReplyDeleteIf my head were meant to explode, it would do so from pride and joy over these students who are willing to incur the wrath of religionists to embrace and defend the concepts of science and rationalism. May each and every one of them influence many others, but I expect it to be a huge undertaking.
ReplyDeleteI was raised Lutheran and later attended catholic schools. I married a catholic in a non-denominational church. We agreed to raise the kids catholic to appease the mother in law. Both kids were baptised and had their first communion. After that, I left it up to spousal unit who was the actual catholic in the family.
ReplyDeleteMy children now 23 and 21, do not follow any organized religion. Both profess a strong belief in a higher power but cannot tolerate religious dogma. They feel it does far more harm than good. Both claim to be Agnostics and I am damn proud of them both.
I too believe in a higher power (not necessarily GOD but I do believe some force was behind the creation of the Universe. I follow no religion. I have nieces and nephews who are proud Atheists and I support them 100%. They are smart kids who are perfectly capable of making up their own minds.
Christo-Fascists and other religious extremists are thankfully a dying breed and once they die out, this world will be a better place.
That's one enlightened family you got there. Congratulations!
DeleteFaith is a great, and personal thing. Organized religion is a tool to control suckers. Rick Santorum is an asshole.
ReplyDeleteThus, your mind is in danger of the unpardonable sin . . . along with many other followers of the immoral majority.
ReplyDeleteBut if it be thy will, carry on . . .
Did you see the study that shows antidepressant use is highest among the reddest of religious states?
ReplyDeleteCheck out what Max Tegmark published on Darwin Day. Some of you may be surprised at what the MIT physicist has to say on the topic of science and religion.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-tegmark/religion-and-science-distance-between-not-as-far-as-you-think_b_2664657.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Back at UF, a friend of mine told me she and some friends put up flyers on the public bulletin boards around campus that read "Thank You for Not Praying." She said that within the hour all of them had been torn down by those "gentle, meek and mild" Christians.
ReplyDeleteWhen the UF Atheists Club would put up its flyers, they would add a line at the bottom that read "NOTICE: Tearing Down This Flyer Is A Sin!"
Tom, in FL
I credit this to young people willing to use their own intellect and come to the one decision that works best for them. I wish these groups had existed when I was in college.
ReplyDeleteI came to my non belief by being forced out of my church, experimenting with other religions, and not getting high on any of them. I left the decision up to my kids. They learned the faith of their grandparents along with other faiths, but the decision was and is still theirs.
My first considers herself a humanist, my son considers himself a "Cafeteria Christian" because he's dating a lovely Luthern lady. My youngest daughter considers herself an atheist. I'm fine with whatever path they choose. It's their life to live, not mine.