Students and faculty from Nicholls are working with the Secular Student Alliance to start a group for atheists, agnostics, humanists, free-thinkers and skeptics on campus. Ory Fromenthal, freshman Morgan City, is the organizer of the group and is being supported by associate professor of biological sciences David L. Schultz. Fromenthal and Schultz hope to get about 10 students, the minimum number required for a new student organization.
The focus of the group will be to have a social community, to educate and to advocate.
“The community is for people to have intelligent conversations and to know they aren’t alone in their disbelief,” Fromenthal said.
He continued by saying the group is a social community minority.
“Religion is not a monopoly,” Schultz said. “We use rational thinking and hope to put a positive image on negative baggage misunderstood about atheists, agnostics, humanists and free-thinkers.”
Fromenthal and Schultz said the group will not be an anti-religious group.
“We hope to have a good relationship with other religious groups and possibly even co-sponsor a debate,” Fromenthal said.
Schultz said he believes atheists, agnostics, humanists and free-thinkers have common interests with religious people.
“We all want the separation of church and state. Many religious groups want the government out of their religion, just like we want religion out of our government,” Schultz said.
Nicholls would not be the first college in the South to have such a group. Louisiana State University has Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics (AHA) to “provide a forum for free thought and discussion and to serve as a social arena for free-thinkers,” as stated on LSU’s Web site.
Mississippi State University also has Atheists, Agnostics and Free-thinkers Student Association.
Nicholls has five religious clubs on campus: Alpha II Omega, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Campus Crusade for Christ, Chi Alpha and St. Thomas Campus Ministry.
“It is not fair to privilege those with religious faith and not have equal rights for those who are non-religious,” Schultz said.
Future plans for the potential group include group meetings, free thought films and, hopefully, to be treated like any other group.
“All we can do is present our group as something positive and people who care and want to contribute to society,” Fromenthal said.
Schultz said the purpose of the group is not to offend.
“Some people may be offended just by the existence of the group, but we don’t plan on doing anything offensive,” Schultz said.
Fromenthal and Schultz are currently working on the application process of starting the group and potentially finding members.
“There are an estimated five to 10 percent of students thinking in this direction. If we could just get one percent, we could have an estimated 70 students. There are probably about 10 faculty members on campus [who are atheist, agnostic, humanist or free-thinkers], but they are not quite ‘out of the closet’ yet,” Schultz said.
Fromenthal began his journey by exploring the Internet and found out about the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association, through which he found Schultz, NOSHA Vice President. Fromenthal contacted the instructor about an interest in starting a group at NSU.
“He [Fromenthal] is the energy behind this; I have been waiting for someone like this for a long time,” Schultz said.
Schultz said he tried to develop a religious background in junior high but could not make it work. Once he started studying science in college, it was clear.
“I would never develop a strong faith,” Schultz said.
The campus group will be affiliated with the National Secular Student Alliance. Founded in May of 2000, SSA’s mission is to “organize, unite, educate and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific rationality, secularism, democracy and human-based ethics. We recognize the following core values: community, respect, education, cooperation, humanistic values (compassion and social responsibility) and public policy,” as stated on secularstudents.org.
