Antonio Villalpando wasn’t very impressed with ASU’s four-year-old Secular Free-Thought Society when he first attended its meetings on the Tempe campus last fall.
He said club members, mostly atheists, were antagonistic and negative toward members of different religions.
Meetings were too formal and dictatorial under the previous club leadership, he said, and group discussion during meetings was rare.
Now, as club president, Villalpando said the group has changed its direction to a more positive and community-based focus.
“We’re more what we’re for than what we’re against,” Villalpando said of the club’s new ways.
He said the club’s new motto could be described as, “You’re an atheist. What now?”
“It’s very well-defined that some of the members hate religion and most of us are non-religious, but at some point we have to, so to speak, validate our existence,” Villalpando said.
Ashwin Gokhale, an economics junior and club member, said the club is not an anti-religion group per se.
“It’s really about promoting separation of church and state and scientific method, things like that,” Gokhale said.
Club member Brittany Louise May, an anthropology sophomore, said the club is also about having a place “to discuss philosophical, ethical and political issues without resorting to religious dogma and calling it fact or logic.”
May said she sporadically attended meetings last semester, but they were somewhat dull, quiet and short. She likes the club’s new outlook and always looks forward to meetings this semester.
“The people attending this semester are fantastic, interesting and enthusiastic to be there,” May said in an e-mail. “The entire meetings seem sunnier now.”
May said she found the group last year after searching for an atheist club. She felt overwhelmed by the large number of religious people she was surrounded by when she arrived at ASU.
“I have nothing against religious people, but it can be very nice to find people who think similarly to you and be able to talk about things with them,” May said. “It is very nice to find other atheists and know you are not alone.”
ASU sophomore and former Christian Aaron Linehan joined the club after actively searching out a secular group on campus this semester.
Though he lost his Christian faith, he missed the community and sense of purpose bound to the church. Now an agnostic atheist, Linehan said he has found what he was looking for in the club.
“I’ve met a bunch of great people here and have wonderful discussions and made a lot of new friends,” Linehan said. “It’s been great.”
All four agree they would like to see the club continue to grow and become a bigger part of the ASU community. With the club’s new outlook and methods, the results have been promising.
“This semester we’ve had an incredible retention rate,” Villalpando said. “Previous semesters we’d start off with 30 people at the first meeting, second meeting we’d have about 10, and by the middle of the semester we’d have three people showing up.”
There were 17 people in attendance at the Thursday meeting.
“Many of us had to search and search for a group like this and I think there are plenty of ASU students who would like to get involved in a group like this and simply do not know it exists,” May said.
Gokhale said the club is still young.
“It’s still a little rough around the edges, but I think as more people keep coming and more people are devoted to it, it will grow and get a lot better.”
Villalpando said the club plans to reach out to the ASU community this semester by hosting speakers and a religious panel discussion.
They started a book club featuring works such as “The Moral Landscape” by Sam Harris and “The Birth of Tragedy” by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Members are also planning to volunteer at a local children’s hospital and with a wildlife foundation to become more involved in the community.
Club members can be found at a table by the Danforth Chapel on Tempe campus most weekdays answering questions and having discussions with students in an attempt to spread the word about the club.
Reach the reporter at cmhays1@asu.edu
