 "Photo: Bob Al-Greene")
They can usually hear the beats of worship music from the Navigators' meeting on the other side of the wall, but the members of Secular Humanists of the University of Nebraskan—Lincoln don't sing at their Thursday meetings.
Instead, they talk. About evolution, about Evangelical preachers, about logical fallacies. And their voices are always louder than the songs.
Secular Humanists of University of Nebraska-Lincoln (SHUNL) is heaven on earth for non-believers. Sophomore philosophy major and president Kate Miller called it a "safe place to be faithless."
Almost all the members of the group are atheist, but according to Thomas Zimmer, a senior psychology, biology and biochemistry major who founded SHUNL in 2008, the definition of "secular humanist" is far more inclusive.
"It only means that you like humans and you think we should be nice to them – not for a religious reason," Zimmer said.
But on a campus with more religious organizations than SHUNL members, it's easy for a non-believer to feel outnumbered. They say they don't have a problem with religion – but they do take issue with street preachers, evangelism and misinformation.
On Oct. 27, the group will host an "Ask an Atheist" panel in the Nebraska Union auditorium, and members will also host a book drive this winter. For fun, Zimmer likes to hand out copies of "Evangelist Bingo" cards tiled in words like "Jesus" and "sin" to play when street preachers roam the campus.
"They're just openly mockable," Zimmer said. "They'll represent positions that are obviously immoral as moral because they're written that way in the Bible."
The label of secular humanist comes along with a few familiar questions: Do you celebrate Christmas? (Usually.) Do you worship Satan? (No.) Do you have morals? (Yes.)
"People say, ‘How do you atheists have morals?'" Collin Lysford, a junior math major said. "And I always think, ‘Are you saying that your morals come out of fear of a celestial dictator?' That's actually kind of sad. And you just feel pity, like, ‘I'm sorry you have to be threatened into morality.'"
Conversations about religion are like concert tickets or candy for the SHUNL members, but said they prefer not to force their ideologies on others. They would rather discuss the differences.
"There's no way I'm going to try to convince you that your beliefs are wrong and you should accept my views," said Michael Milone, a senior psychology and philosophy major and vice president of SHUNL. "I do my best to give most religious people the benefit of the doubt."
Every SHUNL member has a unique story of how he or she came to be a non-believer. Some of them were raised Catholic.
Some were raised without religion. Some have yet to tell their parents of their newfound lack of beliefs. Discovery of doubt, and often hypocrisy, is a common thread in their stories.
"I walked out of church and (thought), ‘This doesn't make a lot of sense anymore. None of these people are really living the way that they said they are, or the way they want to be,'" Milone said. "And I don't want to say that they're all hypocrites and bad people, but this isn't everything that everyone says it is."
SHUNL members said they recognize that just as no two atheists are alike, neither are two believers – and they assume that most theists actually have relatively moderate beliefs. The religious radicals are simply louder.
"This group helps dissipate a lot of anger," Miller said. "It's nice to be able to say, ‘God, that guy with the Bible purse is stupid,' and not piss anyone off. It's helped to not feel so alone."
Secular Humanists of UNL meets Thursdays at 7 p.m. in the Nebraska Union.
jacymarmaduke@dailynebraskan.com