Inciting a moderate turnout and quite a few faith-related questions, last week’s “Ask an Atheist” panel presented an opportunity for community members to learn about the group and its beliefs.
The event was hosted in the LSC Theater at 7 p.m. last Thursday, during which a panel of four Sam Houston Atheist Alliance members – co-founders Anthony Lane and Brian Louden, and members Brittany Wilbert and Travis Anthony — fielded questions from the audience. Dr. Frank Fair moderated.
The panel was held as an attempt to explain the basic ideas behind atheism to the Sam Houston community, rather than a comparison/debate like last year’s event which was co-hosted with Chi Alpha.
“We see a level of either intolerance or ignorance towards atheists and we know this stems from misunderstanding, so we are simply out to educate people,” President and co-founder of the Atheist Alliance, Brian Louden, said. “We want those atheists who want to live their lives normally, unbothered by their lack of belief, to be able to do so.”
The audience reaction was mixed, with most asking questions and offeringrebuttals for the panel. Only one audience member was excused by Dr. Fair after speaking out of turn.
He said that although he often sees a lot of resistance to these beliefs, the people that attended the event were open, accepting and even knowledgeable about the topics discussed.