Binghamton University’s Secular Student Alliance (SSA) held “Ask an Atheist,” the student group’s first major event of the year, on Wednesday, where a panel of about seven members answered questions from an audience of about 15 students.
Members of the SSA, a national atheist education non-profit group founded in 2000 whose BU chapter was chartered last semester, discussed atheism and secular morality.
Scott Star, a senior double-majoring in psychology and mathematics, said that one of the reasons this group came together was to “give a new take on things like religion.”
Star and other members of the SSA said the group hopes to provide community for people with no religious affiliation.
“We don’t want to be restrained in our writing and thinking, and events like these are a way to get these ideas out,” Star said.
The panel discussed the arguments of various philosophers like Immanuel Kant, citing examples of moralism and the ways in which people live without believing in a god.
“The discussion was extremely open,” said Samantha Raia, a sophomore majoring in anthropology and a member of SSA’s executive board. “We’d definitely like to do something like this again.”
Star said the SSA is still working to establish a group identity, as well as learning how to hold public forums and how to express itself.
“I’ve had friends who didn’t want to join because they wanted to just criticize theists, and some people who didn’t want to join because they think that’s all we do,” Star said.
SSA Treasurer Kenneth Chung said he hopes to build off “Ask an Atheist” for events in the future.
“It was a decent turnout, but we hoped to have more theistic students, you don’t have to be atheist to come to this,” said Chung, a senior majoring in mathematics.
The panel handed out pamphlets provided by the national SSA organization that explored concepts of evolution and its relationship between religion, science and public education.
Star said the SSA is planning a “National Day of Reason” as a response to the “National Day of Prayer,” an event the Campus Bible Fellowship, a BU student group, sponsors each year. They are also hoping to organize a blood drive in conjunction with the “National Day of Reason.”
During the event, members of the SSA panel said they hope to help break what they view as a stigma against atheism — and hopefully provoke some good discussion along the way.