[Vision2020] Atheist Group Takes a Different Approach to Religious Activity

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (May 5, 2006) UI Argonaut with a special thanks to Nate Poppino
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Atheist Group Takes a Different Approach to Religious Activity
By Nate Poppino

"Fix reason in her seat and call on her tribunal for every fact, every
opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God because if there
be one, he must surely more approve of the homage of reason than that of
blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson.

For freshman Ryan Yates, the above quote symbolizes everything he stands
for.
Yates, a self-proclaimed atheist evangelist, has a bone to pick with the
United States government and what he views as its treatment of religion.

"I fear America is slowly slipping into the clutches of Christian theocracy.
If it wasn't for this fact, I wouldn't care what kind of nonsense other
people believe," he says.
Clifford Murphy/Argonaut Freshman general studies major Ryan Yates opens up
a copy of "Losing Faith in Faith" out on the administration lawn Thursday
afternoon. Yates met the author, Dan Barker, during the fall semester, and
is a member of the UI Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics.
He backs up this belief with the most basic of evidence: the phrase "One
nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

"Why should I pledge allegiance to a being who doesn't exist in order to
pledge allegiance to the country I love?"

Yates is one of a growing number of atheists, agnostics and secular
humanists at the University of Idaho who have discovered the Society of
Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics, a fledging student club that seeks to
provide a home for students with those beliefs. Athiests believe there is no
God, agnostics believe it's impossible to know whether God exists and
secular humanists believe in respect and tolerance for everyone.

Formed in October, the chapter is a spin-off of the founding SOMA group at
the University of Kansas, which was founded in August 2004. UI students
Kalley Ward and Christina Morris started the chapter after discovering the
Kansas one online.

"Me and Chrissy worked together. We kept talking about things that bothered
us," Ward says.

Those things included religion and religious issues that kept popping up in
their classes. When Morris discovered the Kansas chapter while researching
agnostic and atheist groups online, the two knew they were on to something.

"We decided to see if others like us wanted to get together and talk," Ward
says.
Since forming the group, the pair have attracted about 20 atheists,
agnostics and secular humanists who meet periodically to discuss world
events and other issues, and there could be many more members.

Though neither Ward, an agnostic, nor Tuttle, a humanist, know how many
atheists, agnostics and humanists study at UI, Tuttle said a MySpace search
brought up about 47 student atheists and 75 student agnostics. A humanist
from Eagle has started an Idaho group, but Tuttle says it is hard to tell
how many humanists are in the Moscow area.

"There are most likely a lot more (agnostics and atheists) not on MySpace,"
he says.

Though religious discussions on campus sparked the group's formation, Ward
says the group holds no animosity toward religion on campus, and discussions
rarely focus on bashing religion.

"(We're) more about what we're trying to achieve, instead of what we leave
behind," says Michael Tuttle, who serves as webmaster for the group.
Besides, Ward says, it's pointless to argue about religion.

"You can't argue with faith because it's not rooted in logic," she says.
"People are really protective of faith. The last thing we want to do is
offend people."

The chapter is working on becoming more active and organized, and at this
point just wants to make its presence known. Though a regular meeting
schedule is still being worked out, Tuttle says they plan to rotate the days
they meet to try to accommodate members' personal schedules.

"One time, we'll meet on Monday. The next, on Wednesday," he says.
While SOMA is defined by its lack of organized religion, its members speak
often of church.

"We advocate the separation of church and state," Ward says. "We can talk
forever. It's nice to be in an environment with people with similar views."
The church-and-state debate is not the only subject that comes up, however.
The discussions roam across topics to whatever is on each member's mind.
"A number of people are informed in different areas," Tuttle says. "We speak
with each other and learn."

One of Ward's particular beefs is the mixture of campaign financing,
lobbying and other factors that leaves her uncertain of whom else she
supports when voting for political candidates.

"There are lots of bodies governing me. . I want to know who I support
indirectly," she says.

In order to counteract such things, she stays as informed as possible about
current events.

"I'm constantly researching things that affect my life," she says. "It's
crazy that more people don't care."

Though Ward's focus on current political events may place her in the
minority of students, she still has the company of people like Tuttle. He
says he happened to join SOMA only because of a flier posted in the Idaho
Commons.

"I decided to check it out and decide if it's for me," he says.
Once he did, he was quickly recruited to work on the Web site, for which he
has high hopes. He says he wants to educate people about the groups that
make up SOMA.

"Atheists and agnostics aren't just myths, fairy tales made up by people to
scare children," Tuttle says.

As a secular humanist, Tuttle believes heavily in the good old scientific
method.
"I started thinking it before I found out about it," he says. "It's using
the scientific method to learn about ourselves. . Everyone has inherent
worth and dignity and deserves to have respect."

That belief guides his actions throughout a typical day on campus.
"I try not to judge other people by outward appearance. It can be
difficult," he says.

Another facet of humanists, Tuttle says, is their search for knowledge.
"We use the scientific method to verify things and make sure they're
accurate," he says. "We try to keep an open mind. The only real constant in
the universe is things change."

As an agnostic, Ward says her ethics and actions mirror Tuttle's.
"I think that I'm very bound in reality. I'm very open-minded and
nondiscriminating toward anybody," she says.

For Tuttle, not being part of a mainstream religion has become easier.
Moscow, he says, is much more open and progressive than St. Maries, the
small town an hour and a half away where he grew up.

"St. Maries is very conservative," he says. "There are 15 or so churches for
a town with about 3,000 people at most."

Yates came from a very different place. The general studies major hails from
Tampa, Fla., a place he says is filled with "hypocrisy."

"Up here, at least Christians try to practice what they preach, to a greater
extent," he says.

Yates attended a Methodist church with his parents as a child, but says he
gradually lost interest after discovering the wide variety of religions in
the world.
"They can't all be right," he says.

Along with what he felt were irreconcilable discrepancies between religion
and scientific thought - he says lineages written in the Bible claim the
Earth is only 6,000 years old and the flood depicted in the Book of Genesis
would have occurred while ancient Egyptian society was at its height - he
left because he never understood God.

"I couldn't come to terms with a god that would both want to have a personal
relationship with me and at the same time make it illogical to believe in
him," he says.

For example, he says, trying to earn one's way into heaven makes no sense if
God is all-knowing, and especially if one believes in predestination, that
life events are already laid out and set in stone.

"What is the point of a test when you already know the outcome?" he asks.
By his own admission, Yates is very hard on Christianity. But it's with good
reason, he says, as none of the other religions are oppressing him.

"I do what I do to defend my own civil liberties - reproductive rights,
separation of church and state - because I think that's in jeopardy right
now," he says. "Not all Christians do push their views, but the fact is,
there's enough who do."
He says he plans to learn more about other religions. For now, he is busy
with his anti-Christian work.

His activism includes e-mail exchanges with Christians he meets online, as
well as the operators of everyvandal.com, an offshoot of everystudent.com,
which he describes as a campus campaign to halt the spread of atheism and
agnosticism. His goal is not necessarily to convert everyone away from
Christianity, but to just get them to stay out of government.

"This is a democracy where people vote," he says. "If I get enough people
who see things my way, I won't have to worry about that anymore."
Fortunately, the university isn't one of his targets.

"I think UI is great," he says. "I think they are really good with keeping
it secular and just looking at the facts correctly. . I've never felt
prejudiced against by UI officials or anything like that. But UI is one of
few places where I've ever felt like that."

Yates will have one more place of refuge once SOMA gets on its feet. For
now, the club is still in the final stages of organization, but Ward and
Tuttle say they plan to soon have a regular meeting schedule and a finished
Web site. The site currently contains an abundance of links to similar
sites, and meeting times and other information will be posted eventually.

Then they can move on to the next thing, Tuttle says.
"We're talking a bit about starting a newsletter."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

" . . . wording plays a big part in understand[ing] the nature and meaning a
verse written two thousand years ago in a different language, and some
Bibles just have it plain wrong."

- Donovan Arnold (August 23, 2005)