Student group's panel affirms atheist beliefs

Graduate student Mark Hensley asks a question during a Penn Inquiry & Freethought Forum event. Low religious student attendence turned the discussion toward the merits of atheism.

What organizers had intended to be an open discussion forum aimed at dispelling misconceptions surrounding atheism quickly turned into support for atheism itself.

The Penn Inquiry & Freethought Forum, a new club aimed at discussing secular opinions and ideas, hosted "Ask a Skeptic" last night in Huntsman Hall, hoping for a balance of religious and non-religious attendees who would foster healthy debate.

But only one audience member out of roughly thirty raised her hand when the panel asked if anyone was religious.

The panel featured two IFF members and Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists Incorporated.

"Ask a Skeptic" panelists began with an introduction of current misconceptions surrounding atheism.

Panelist and College sophomore Eric Arneson noted that atheists are sometimes seen as "bomb-throwing Bolsheviks."

But the discussion soon became a reaffirmation of atheist beliefs.

Audience member and College senior Bonnie Waring said that panelists "were biased toward the atheist point of view."

Johnson said that "religion uses free will to get God off the hook; . free will is a fraud," and later added that "people helped people in Katrina because [the helpers] are atheists."

Arneson said God "is a bizarre and foreign concept to me," just "some guy in a nice hat."

College senior Devin McIntyre, the lone audience member who said she believed in a God - she is a follower of a small Druidry religion - described her personal experiences with God to the forum.

But Arneson quickly shot back by saying that "personal experiences don't mean rational experiences."

Johnson also noted that ADF Druidry, a new religion founded in 1986, would never become mainstream because "if your religion isn't as aggressive as Christianity, it won't make it."

When asked what she hoped the outcome of "Ask a Skeptic" would be, Johnson said to "register [atheists] to vote; . it's all politics."

Waring said that the purpose of the meeting was not fulfilled.

Wharton freshman Anthony Leem agreed, saying that the purpose of the meeting became "proving that all things religious are wrong."

Comments (6)

Go Atheists! Keep up the good work! ADF Druidry?!? You have to be kidding me.

AN ENSLAVING FORCE Few people realize the extent of the reach, influence and overwhelming power of religion! Nor do many people have any idea as to the enormity of the Vatican's financial resources! Very likely, the Vatican is the wealthiest entity by a factor of 100 that the world has ever seen. And its tax-free status, weekly and "willed" donations of millions, when added to income from all its many worldwide investments, positions those who control that fabulous bottomless pool of wealth as the world's most influential lobbyist or purchaser! This may be one of the reasons the Pledge of Allegiance was plagiarized and altered from "one nation indivisible" to the bigoted "one nation (divided) under God." And why 100 senators disgraced our country and themselves by reciting the religious pledge on the steps of the senate and before television beamed to the entire world! The time has come to discredit the outrageous assertions by the Ponzi-racketeering charlatans who promote the plague-like mind destroying disease religion that survives by warping the minds of innocent children and fools, robbing them of their candy and toy money, and enslaving them to a life as shills who help perpetuate the criminal religion schemes. "Secular humanists," "non-believers" and other sane and rational people know that no proof survives the fairytales of a magician named Jesus or his magic miracles, nor is there any proof whatsoever that there is or ever was a supreme creator God. Yet this and other lies are used to perpetuate their rotten scheme religion. People who live in the "real" world refuse to accept silly lies, fairy tales and farce as fact, whether it be about "Santa Claus" "The Tooth Fairy," "Donald Duck," a "Jesus" or a "Creator God." Nor should they be lumped with or considered analogous with a gang of thieving, lying, mind-warping pedophiles who use a how-to manual of pornography, pillorying, stoning to death and other forms of outright bigotry for their weekly stimulus to more proselytizing. The senators who said that fallacious rendition of our once great Pledge of Allegiance shall be remembered as the promoters of a criminal enterprise and the abettors or cohorts of a bunch of thieving slavers who invade every phase of society with their lying assertions that "our country was founded as a Christian nation. Their plagiarism of our once great Pledge of Allegiance, their repeated attempts to force their "Godism" on all schoolchildren and their ever increasing use of all forms of media and gimmicks to mesmerize, indoctrinate and bludgeon the American people with their outrageous, endless efforts to dominate us all with a theocratic form of government renders them criminals! And the likes of George W. Bush and his ilk by giving millions of dollars to faith-based groups is bidding them "Godspeed"! -------------------------------------------------------- When a faith outlives its usefulness. Alan Tacca The Kampala Monitor The time has come to abolish Christianity, said Alan Tacca in the Kampala Monitor. Most Western societies are now only nominally Christian. Even for churchgoers, �?God is clearly a cultural construct.�? True believers are a dying breed, and Catholic and Protestant churches alike are struggling with a chronic shortage of priests and ministers. Rather than bemoaning this trend, the West should embrace it. Religion is doing little these days but provide fuel for conflicts: Muslims against Christians, Hindus against Buddhists, and everyone against the Jews. So let�?s dispose of the Christian God, the way the Western colonial powers got rid of African deities long ago. Back then, colonizers �?actively undermined those gods until they were stripped of all dignity. It is now time to declare their God also primitive.�? References to God should be removed from currencies and national anthems, sand-blasted off government buildings. Only after faith in the supernatural is gone can people take responsibility for generating �?virtue and beauty�? in �?the human realm.�? --------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't believe in atheists.

I don't believe in Andrew J. Rennekamp.

I think maybe the writer was just a bit biased, or else distracted I guess. There were several hands raised when Ellen Johnson asked if anyone believed in God, mine among them. Also, I mentioned belonging to a relatively mainstream Protestant sect when I asked a question. And BTW, the quote about "some guy in a nice hat" refers to the Pope, otherwise it'd be a Really strange non sequitor. That being said, Johnson was incredibly and unfortunately bigoted, and I don't think that's what the event organizers had in mind. Oh well?

One in 30 in attendance was not an atheist, and yet, someone is surprised that panelists "were biased toward the atheist point of view?" How is this possible? The entire panel was composed of atheists, but they are not supposed to endorse a secular viewpoint? It is no wonder that public attitudes toward atheists in America have remained fairly negative when media coverage virtually always adopts a negative tone about the atheists they occasionally cover.

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