Thinking Like You Never Have Before…With the Freethinkers of Virginia Tech
By Jon Atwood

In a 12-seat table in Squires room 232, the Freethinkers Club at Virginia Tech filled four of those seats by the time their meeting began. Lying back in their chairs, their soft voices began conversation. About two minutes later a sixth member entered.

“What’s the topic again?” the member asked.

It was “Are societies predisposed to a belief in a deity.” The six participants at Monday’s meeting at 7 p.m., represented a normal turnout for the gatherings, held bi-weekly on Monday around four times a semester. No one is at a loss for words. Just the way Richard Shryock, faculty advisor for the club, wants it.

 “I feel it is an opportunity for students and other members of the university community to get together and share their ideas on matters related to free thought, which is a very large category,” Shryock said.

A freethinker, as defined on the club’s website, www.freeatvt.org, is “A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief.” By meeting, the club hopes to stir conversations on topics such as atheism, religion or the supernatural.

“Those who don’t believe or have doubts about religion are very much in the minority and very much marginalized,” Shryock said.

Not that Freethinkers is exclusive to non-religious people.

“Religious, as well as non-religious people, are welcome,” Shryock said.

Richard Shadrach, a club member and sophomore computer science and math major, described the meetings as, “fairly light.” Shadrach had attended two meetings prior to Monday’s.

“We like to talk about serious things, but, in a light manner, in a calm and easy manner,” Shadrach said.

Like many other club members, Shadrach is an atheist, although he hasn’t always been.

“I was a theist until probably around seventh grade, and I’ve been varying between atheism and agnostic ever since,” Shadrach said. “I started thinking a lot about the Bible and I just didn’t like what I was reading.”

Shryock also gradually developed his atheism. Raised in the Christian faith, he became dissatisfied with how the church connected to the real world.

“What I was seeing in the church just wasn’t making any sense, and didn’t seem to correspond with what I was seeing in the world around me,” Shryock said.

Andrew Collins, a former Virginia Tech student, founded the club in 1996. He said he wanted to find “like-minded people” and to create awareness of group pressures.

“Things like church/state separation and awareness of the psychological pressures that some religious groups put on their members is unhealthy, and against the long term happiness of their members,” Collins said.

So Collins set out putting advertisements in dining halls and creating a mailing list. Today the Freethinkers discussion group at Yahoo has 113 members.

“The mailing list has been the focal point of the group,” Collins said. “And that’s been a great place to post news, recent news, things like what the religious right might be doing at any given time.”

Since moving from Blacksburg, Collins has remained active in the group by posting newsworthy articles.

By around 8:30, the topic shifted to the control that groups and ideas can exert on people. Not just religion.

“People can become free of religion, but then they become slaves to atheism,” one member said.

Shryock said that although people occasionally attend meetings with conflicting viewpoints, no one has been disruptive.

“No one’s ever come and harassed us or anything like that,” Shryock said.

Shryock described the relationship the club has with the university as “pleasant.” The group held an organized debate a few years ago with the Campus Bible Fellowship. Jonathan Eisenback, faculty advisor of the fellowship, said the meeting went fine, calling it a “hospitable debate.” He said, however, that such debates are not entirely productive.

“They open up dialogue, but many times when people are in various clubs like that, they’ve already decided on those issues,” Eisenback.

In addition, religious debates can agitate people, as Shadrach found out in a debate with his friend some time ago.

“He got very mad at me, just because, for getting into that debate,” Shadrach said.

Shryock said that the group had been approached by two religious groups this year to hold an organized debate, but that the club showed little interest.

But agitators can come from both sides. Collins said that he had to censor someone on the message board for what he described as “Explosive anti-religious bigotry.”

“He was trying to get everybody in a fighting mood, like, ‘How can you be for religion, why can’t you be all one hundred percent anti-religion,’”

Collins said the club does not want to just trash religion. Rather, he wants to increase awareness on how religion can shape peoples’ perceptions.

“It’s that religion can mask the evil deeds of people and the bad thoughts that limit choices of people very effectively,” Collins said.

What’s really important, Shryock said, is having an open, critical discussion, regardless of views.

“Whether or not I agree with someone, I like people who are engaged with ideas,” Shryock said.

Finally at around 8:50, conversation ran out. Almost.

“The last 45 minutes, I don’t know what the hell we were talking about,” one member said. “It’s just so vague.”

Another member said, “We tend to do that, don’t we?”