Atheist student groups flower on college campuses

[WillParkinson]

Atheist student groups flower on college campuses
By The Associated Press
11.23.2009 8:39am EST

(Ames, Iowa) The sign sits propped on a wooden chair, inviting all comers: “Ask an Atheist.”

Whenever a student gets within a few feet, Anastasia Bodnar waves and smiles, trying to make a good first impression before eyes drift down to a word many Americans rank down there with “socialist.”

Bodnar is the happy face of atheism at Iowa State University. Once a week at this booth at a campus community center, the PhD student who spends most of her time researching the nutritional traits of corn takes questions and occasional abuse while trying to raise the profile of religious skepticism.

“A lot of people on campus either don’t know we exist or are afraid of us or hate us,” says Bodnar, president of the ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society. “People assume we’re rabble-rousing, when we’re one of the gentlest groups on campus.”

http://www.365gay.com/news/atheist-student-groups-flower-on-college-campuses/

[Soylent Brice]

1. pretty cool.

[Q3JR4]

2. I'm glad to read it.

I'm doing my part by being the best faculty/staff adviser I can to the students who run the atheist group on the campus where I work.

Q3JR4.

[immoderate]

3. Good story.

--imm