A new student group, the Free Thinkers for Education and Morality, is geared toward diversity within the campus community.
Amber Crawford, nursing sophomore, is the president of the Free Thinkers. She began the student group along with Zak Denham, music technology senior and vice president, as an outlet for the atheist, agnostic and undecided demographic.
The group is an alternative for people who do not prescribe to the Christian belief in one God. However, it is not about bashing religion in general.
“I looked in the IUS Planner, and there was a list of clubs and organizations,” Denham said. “There was also a header with the title ‘religious groups,’ and there was only one — the Christian Student Fellowship. My first feeling was that they are misrepresenting a lot of other religious people here.”
Crawford said the Free Thinkers are trying to re-educate people about the truth behind atheism and agnosticism.
“I’m trying to make people see that we’re not this image or stereotype that people have in their mind of an atheist,” Crawford said.
The group also discusses education and community involvement.
“We could just raise money and send it to a charitable organization halfway across the world,” Denham said, “but we want to find opportunities to help locally and make a difference locally.”
Though the group is geared toward people who do not believe in a set religion, they do not discriminate against people of a religious nature.
“It’s not an anti-religion group — it’s a comfort zone,” Crawford said. “We want to educate people and help the community and also create a safe haven.”
Trevor Christy, engineering freshman through the Purdue extension, said he decided to attend the Free Thinkers because of many discussions he has had with his family about religion and morality.
“I had a lot of debates in my family,” Christy said. “They were actually more talks about government — how religion shouldn’t be in government, but you still need a set of morals to run a country — and that is what really attracted me to this originally, that you could have a moral code that isn’t founded in religion.”
Cory Schaeffer, undecided freshman, said he wants people to know the Free Thinkers are open-minded.
“If you want to learn something about your own religion or maybe someone else’s religion, you should come,” Schaeffer said.
Denham and Crawford said they want IUS students to know this group is open to everyone, but they do ask to come into it with an open and accepting mind.
“We will be talking about topics that are thought-provoking, and they should take that into consideration before attending,” Denham said.
By LESLIE RADCLIFF
Staff
radclifl@umail.iu.edu