Group Overview

The following outline provides nearly all the useful information you can ask for about Gator Freethought:

Overview:

Welcome to Gator Freethought* at UF. We are the one and only registered student organization dedicated to promoting open dialogue about religion and nonreligion alike. We provide people of any religious background the opportunity to meet and discuss religion and nonreligion alike. You do not need to identify with any particular religious or nonreligious beliefs; you need only identify as a freethinker—someone who holds his or her beliefs because he finds them, after careful thought and rational inquiry, to be the most reasonable beliefs one could possibly hold. Many of our members self-identify as non-religious, secular, naturalist, humanist, atheist, agnostic, ignostic—but others also self-identify as Christian, Jewish, or Islamic, and still more find the entire idea of self-identification either impossible or pointless.

We meet every 2-3 weeks during the school year to hear a guest speaker on some topic of interest, after which we have a lively and interesting discussion, and typically go out for food and drinks afterwards. In addition, our members usually offer to host get-togethers every few weeks for the group.

If you consider yourself interested in critically examining religion and nonreligion alike, you will fit right in. Again, the only requirement is that you allow your own beliefs to be discussed critically and rationally, just as you discuss critically and rationally the beliefs of others. We are interested in examining arguments both for and against the existence of God. Though we are made up of atheists, theists, and everything in between, the group itself is neither religious nor nonreligious. We are neither "anti-religion" nor "pro-religion." We are neither "anti-atheism" nor "pro-atheism." We are defined not by our conclusion—whether for or against God—but by our method—free, peaceful, and rational inquiry. Come out and join us! If you have any questions, please contact us here.

Purpose:

We aim to provide a forum for discussion, rational debate, guest speakers, and social activity in order to promote an open and supportive environment for the free discussion and analysis of religion and nonreligion alike. Our goals are to enable students to meet and discuss religious, philosophical, ethical, political, and other issues in an environment free from the pressure of reaching a certain conclusion (for instance, whether for or against the existence of a god); to promote skepticism, rational thought, critical inquiry, science, and the worth of the individual; and to ensure the separation of church and state. We do not all agree on politics, values, ethics, or fashion, and we do not demand conformity − instead, we encourage freethinking.

Meetings:

Always check for scheduled meetings HERE. We will be using an alternating schedule of

i) formal lectures by guest speakers, followed by Q&A
ii) semiformal topical forums, in which we have an open dialogue without moderation, but attempt to stay on topic
iii) purely social events involving food/drink/whatever

The short, interesting talks and Q&A will come from departments in philosophy, comparative religion, theology-related groups, mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry etc. They could speak on everything from epistemology, metaphysics, culture wars, arguments for/against gods, string theory and cosmology, abiogenesis… anything relevant to religious belief.

We also have hosted and plan to host speakers from SSA, AA, CFI, and others for campus-wide debates or large-audience talks.

We also work with Campus Crusade for Christ at UF, Gator Christian Life, and Servants of Christ Anglican Church on events in order better to promote an open and unafraid dialogue about religion.

Origins:

Gator Freethought began as the Atheist, Agnostic, and Freethinking Student Association, which was resurrected in March of 2006 by a chemistry graduate student. He had noticed the lack of any freethought group on campus, and given the proliferation of openly religious groups, he decided to create an openly nonreligious one. In the past, other groups have filled this role: HASA (oldest), AASA (older), AASA (2002). Since these groups had all dissolved, he contacted the old leadership and registered AAFSA with the Center for Student Involvement. We have now evolved to Gator Freethought, and so too has our purpose. Our identity has shifted from being a collection of a certain kind of discussers—atheists, agnostics, freethinkers—to a certain kind of discussion—freethought.

Plugging In:

See here if you want to join, and see here for how to help out with our efforts.

Organization:

We are registered with UF's Center for Student Involvement as an official student organization. See that record here. Also see our GF Constitution or the older AAFSA one.

Officers:

Our current officers are:

• President: David Zucker
• Vice President: Paul Dorasil
• Treasurer: Allen Paulino
• Secretary: Ben Sarbey
• Faculty advisor: Philosophy Prof. D. Gene Witmer

Frequently Asked Questions:

We have an FAQ page to answer general questions about the group, our purpose, etc., in more detail.

Contributing to the Gator Freethought Site (Blog):

If you haven’t been added to the contributors list on the Gator Freethought site, you can still write comments (even anonymously). However, if you wish to post articles to our site, you must be sent an invite. Those of you who have an interest, please check out the contributors information, which gives you step-by-step instructions for getting started with Blogger.

* formerly the Atheist, Agnostic & Freethinking Student Association at UF