Overview:
Welcome to Gator Freethought, formerly/a.k.a. the Atheist, Agnostic & Freethinking Student Association at UF. We are the one and only registered student organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the needs and wants of the nontheist** community of UF, and Gainesville at large. The Gator Freethought email (spam-proofed):
Purpose:
We aim to provide a forum for discussion, rational debate, guest speakers, and social activity. This group will, certainly, fill a void at UF − providing a place to “plug in” if you consider yourself a nontheist, but we do not discriminate (see the constitution below) against members or visitors to our meetings, regardless of their views, so long as they are genuinely interested in being a part of our group (and not solely in proselytizing). So, even believers who may wish to sharpen their views, or understand atheism, are entirely welcome.
We do not all agree on politics, values, ethics, or fashion, and we do not demand conformity − instead, we encourage freethinking. Given there are probably 100 religion-related groups at UF, it is certainly time for a group for the nonreligious. AASA used to fill that void, but went defunct and has now been evolved to Gator Freethought. Given that a 2001 CUNY ARIS research survey revealed that 14% of Floridians mark, “no religion” as their religious preference, there is certainly a need to provide this segment of the population with community and advocacy. We hope to seriously engage with the university community, in order to promote our values alongside, and not necessarily in competition with, those promoted by other campus groups and political organizations. The core values and purposes of Gator Freethought are listed in the constitution. See the FAQ #1, #5 and #9 for more.
Meetings:
Always check for scheduled meetings HERE. We will be using an alternating schedule of
Long-term, we plan for the group to host many speakers from SSA, AA, CFI, and others to come in and do campus-wide debates or large-audience talks.
We also want to work with Campus Crusade for Christ at UF, Gator Christian Life, &c. (yes, you read that correctly). We want to be available to them to present an alternative voice and possibly engage with them in dialog and debate on campus. We simply have to make an effort to engage in dialog with those people who desire to have one, and this will often be religious campus groups.
Why a Blog?
Although we have space on our grove account for a healthy web page, we went with a blog for several reasons. One of the reasons the group fell apart was lack of interconnectivity in administration. Once the group was not renewed after the last president departed, the old grove page went dead, rendering communication between members effectively null. We realized from the outset that we had to look forward to this sort of situation possibly arising again, and prevent it. Another step we took to try to help prevent the dissolution of the group was to write a succession document to assist the transition in leadership. A blog, and especially an independently-hosted blog, is the perfect solution: many contributors, all constantly posting and revising and refining information…it’s like natural selection in action. One could also see the blog as a sort of subset of the Gator Freethought community all its own.
Another reason a blog is favorable was to make posting notices, news, and meeting information facile for EVERYONE. A single web page is almost always one person’s responsibility, and thus can be no more up-to-date and revised than that person’s schedule allows. Many people don’t know how to FTP, and major problems can arise with too many people using FTP or trying to do serious web updates. This prevents major headaches in putative webmaster(s)’ lives. Also, ideally, the functional “freshness”, and scope, and depth, of information here is limited not by my own schedule (or whatever webmaster), but by ALL the contributors’ schedules.
Want to join this site? Email us, and we’ll send you a Blogger invite. You can use a pseudonym and stay completely anonymous. Also, see the contributors page.
Plugging In:
See here if you want to join, and see here 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 Gator Freethought Constitution (rev. 9-12-06) [external link]
Officers:
The offices of President and Treasurer must be filled to claim organization status with UF. All other leadership is optional, but rather necessary for the health of the group. There are some requirements for officers (at least part-time status at UF, >2.0 GPA), and the first core of officers was taken on a voluntary basis. The next core will be elected in accordance with the constitution. The officers are usually listed here on our Facebook group. Our current faculty advisor is 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.
**By nontheist, I want to include anyone and everyone who does not have a belief in a personal god, who does not think it possible to know whether or not God exists, as well as those who strongly disbelieve in any sort of god, as well as those who are amenable to some aspects Deism or Buddhism, but reject a supernatural ontology. Nontheists can thus be Atheists, Agnostics, Infidels, Heathens, Freethinkers, Humanists, Unitarian Universalists, etc… We want a big tent in freethought, and we don’t have doctrines to agree with.
Welcome to Gator Freethought, formerly/a.k.a. the Atheist, Agnostic & Freethinking Student Association at UF. We are the one and only registered student organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the needs and wants of the nontheist** community of UF, and Gainesville at large. The Gator Freethought email (spam-proofed):
Purpose:
We aim to provide a forum for discussion, rational debate, guest speakers, and social activity. This group will, certainly, fill a void at UF − providing a place to “plug in” if you consider yourself a nontheist, but we do not discriminate (see the constitution below) against members or visitors to our meetings, regardless of their views, so long as they are genuinely interested in being a part of our group (and not solely in proselytizing). So, even believers who may wish to sharpen their views, or understand atheism, are entirely welcome.
We do not all agree on politics, values, ethics, or fashion, and we do not demand conformity − instead, we encourage freethinking. Given there are probably 100 religion-related groups at UF, it is certainly time for a group for the nonreligious. AASA used to fill that void, but went defunct and has now been evolved to Gator Freethought. Given that a 2001 CUNY ARIS research survey revealed that 14% of Floridians mark, “no religion” as their religious preference, there is certainly a need to provide this segment of the population with community and advocacy. We hope to seriously engage with the university community, in order to promote our values alongside, and not necessarily in competition with, those promoted by other campus groups and political organizations. The core values and purposes of Gator Freethought are listed in the constitution. See the FAQ #1, #5 and #9 for more.
Meetings:
Always check for scheduled meetings HERE. We will be using an alternating schedule of
i) formal lectures by guest speakers, followed by Q&AThe 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…really interesting stuff.
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
Long-term, we plan for the group to host many speakers from SSA, AA, CFI, and others to come in and do campus-wide debates or large-audience talks.
We also want to work with Campus Crusade for Christ at UF, Gator Christian Life, &c. (yes, you read that correctly). We want to be available to them to present an alternative voice and possibly engage with them in dialog and debate on campus. We simply have to make an effort to engage in dialog with those people who desire to have one, and this will often be religious campus groups.
Why a Blog?
Although we have space on our grove account for a healthy web page, we went with a blog for several reasons. One of the reasons the group fell apart was lack of interconnectivity in administration. Once the group was not renewed after the last president departed, the old grove page went dead, rendering communication between members effectively null. We realized from the outset that we had to look forward to this sort of situation possibly arising again, and prevent it. Another step we took to try to help prevent the dissolution of the group was to write a succession document to assist the transition in leadership. A blog, and especially an independently-hosted blog, is the perfect solution: many contributors, all constantly posting and revising and refining information…it’s like natural selection in action. One could also see the blog as a sort of subset of the Gator Freethought community all its own.
Another reason a blog is favorable was to make posting notices, news, and meeting information facile for EVERYONE. A single web page is almost always one person’s responsibility, and thus can be no more up-to-date and revised than that person’s schedule allows. Many people don’t know how to FTP, and major problems can arise with too many people using FTP or trying to do serious web updates. This prevents major headaches in putative webmaster(s)’ lives. Also, ideally, the functional “freshness”, and scope, and depth, of information here is limited not by my own schedule (or whatever webmaster), but by ALL the contributors’ schedules.
Want to join this site? Email us, and we’ll send you a Blogger invite. You can use a pseudonym and stay completely anonymous. Also, see the contributors page.
Plugging In:
See here if you want to join, and see here 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 Gator Freethought Constitution (rev. 9-12-06) [external link]
Officers:
The offices of President and Treasurer must be filled to claim organization status with UF. All other leadership is optional, but rather necessary for the health of the group. There are some requirements for officers (at least part-time status at UF, >2.0 GPA), and the first core of officers was taken on a voluntary basis. The next core will be elected in accordance with the constitution. The officers are usually listed here on our Facebook group. Our current faculty advisor is 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.
**By nontheist, I want to include anyone and everyone who does not have a belief in a personal god, who does not think it possible to know whether or not God exists, as well as those who strongly disbelieve in any sort of god, as well as those who are amenable to some aspects Deism or Buddhism, but reject a supernatural ontology. Nontheists can thus be Atheists, Agnostics, Infidels, Heathens, Freethinkers, Humanists, Unitarian Universalists, etc… We want a big tent in freethought, and we don’t have doctrines to agree with.
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