The Infidel Guy Show - How Do I Start A College Freethought Club?

-- By Tsiehta

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, free thought is defined as "Thought that rejects authority and dogma, especially in religion; freethinking." Some suggest that there is a difference between "free thought" and "freethought", usually that freethought also includes doubt regarding the supernatural. For the purpose of this FAQ, I will use the following definition of freethought: a way of thinking about the universe and everything in it using reason, rationality, and the scientific method, while rejecting religious dogma and authoritarianism and treating the supernatural with rational doubt.

Ever looked around and thought to yourself, "This campus needs a freethought club"? Well Moloth and I have, and it's actually not that difficult to get one started.

The first resource you should consider is the Campus Freethought Alliance. Moloth and I attend a relatively small commuter college in the middle of the "Bible Belt" so we decided to leave blatant rejection of religion out of the picture (for now) in order to gain initial support. However, if the word "atheism" doesn't make you feel like a black sheep on your campus, the CFA is a really good place to start. While they are not a strictly atheist organization, the term does appear on their website and seems to be a loose part of their general philosophy. The FAQ on their "about" page includes how to start a group. You can call, email the President or the Director, or use snail mail, to request a manual on "CFA affiliate groups" and assistance with getting your club started.

If you don't want to bother joining CFA or you're in a situation like mine and Moloth's, the first thing to do is find out what it takes to start a student organization in general on your campus. You may be able to find this by going to your college's website, visiting your student life office (or whatever office deals with student organizations), or by asking professors or students involved with other organizations. I went to our student life office and was given a packet entitled "Policies and Guidelines for the Formation and Functioning of Campus Organizations". It includes responsibilities and rules for student organizations, a sample club constitution, and, most importantly, the criteria for gaining official recognition by the college. For us, this includes writing a general description of how the club will operate (officers, qualifications for membership, dues/fees, etc.), getting a "petition of interest" signed by 25 students who would be interested in being active in the club, and finding a faculty member to sponsor the organization. While the details of this process will vary from campus to campus, the general process will probably be similar.

Once you find out what you have to do on the official side, it will be beneficial to find a solid amount of student interest before going ahead with the process. I would suggest finding at least a handful of committed freethinkers, exchanging contact info, and planning a meeting to discuss the details of the organization. Discuss where and how often the group will meet, how the meetings will be run, what the roles of the officers will be, who can join and how, what you will call the organization, who your sponsor(s) will be, etc. We settled on meeting once a week, 3 meetings for general discussion of a couple of member-submitted topics, and 1 meeting for a formal debate between 2 members. This kind of thing is basically determined by whatever you think everyone would get the most out of.

Consider what you want the club to accomplish. Do you want to simply share ideas with other members, have rigorous debates about controversial issues, educate people outside the club, a mixture of all three, or something completely different? Also discuss what kind of activities the club will take part in around campus. Two popular possibilities are hosting guest speakers and hosting debates either between club members or between guests on a variety of freethought-related topics. You could also host an ongoing information campaign, in which you try to increase student awareness of resources for science- and freethought-related subjects, including websites, books, journals, people, etc.

Check out some of these sites for information and ideas:

Kansas State University's Individuals for Freethought
Florida State's Union of Freethinking Students.
Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers at NYU
Texas Tech Objectivist Club
Students for A Non-religious Ethos at U of Ca @ Berkeley
Internet Infidels
The Freethought Zone
Freedom From Religion Foundation
Council for Secular Humanism
Red Nova - Science Info and News.
National Academies Press - 3,000 science-related books available online for free
How to construct logical arguments.
Logical fallacies.

Now that you've gotten some of your peers together and you've worked out essentially how the club is going to operate, you can continue with official business. (It's considerably easier to get support and interest for something when you have a firm grasp on what it actually is.) If a faculty sponsor/advisor is required, do that first; in interested professor be a lot of help with getting the club going since faculty tend to know how these things work. As you go through whatever steps the administration has set up for potential clubs (applications, petitions, etc.), start trying get as many people as possible aware of and interested in the newly forming club. As long as you've got a dozen or so (depending on the size of your college) solid, committed members, don't worry too much about how committed the rest are. At this point, you need a small group of active people and a lot of at-least-somewhat-interested people ("small" and "a lot" being relative to the size of your college). Three good ways of getting word out are putting up flyers about the club (with your contact info if you're comfortable giving it out), telling (via word of mouth, email, telephone, can and string, or whatever) everyone you know about it including your professors, and getting your sponsor to tell hir peers s/he is supporting it.

Okay, so you've gotten some really committed students, some fairly interested students, a sponsor/advisor (if you need one), and you have everything you need to submit to the administration for approval. (For Moloth and I, this includes the petition and an official application.) Now just hand over whatever documentation is required and await further instructions. From this point, the process will be somewhat institution-specific, and specific to your organization's structure once it gets going, but there are some general things you should do:

Keep yourself informed about anything interesting/controversial going on in the news that you can use as fuel for your club. Even seemingly tired issues can spark very interesting discussions/debates, often with good arguments for all sides.
Keep up frequent contact with your most committed peers and your sponsor/advisor, and slightly less frequent contact with others who have expressed interest. Let people know well in advance of meetings and any other important happenings.
Probably the most important thing about having a freethought club is keeping your minds challenged. You don't have to go far at all to get brain food. You and many of your members may be interested in such things as quantum mechanics, astrophysics, epistemology, and a plethora of other fascinating subjects about which a wealth of information is available online. Use the internet (google is a good place to start when you're looking for info on just about anything). Joining forums like Infidel Guy's is also a good way to get fresh concepts and hear fresh arguments on not-so-new concepts.

And as always, keep your mind open! Remember, this whole thing is about freethought, so let your brain be your guide!

Timestamp: Nov26, 2003