Richy
27-10-2008, 05:12 PM
Hi, I'm Richy Thompson, President of the Oxford Atheist Society - well, one of two Presidents, the other being Will Potter. That up there is a picture of me as a baby :p
Firstly, let me say sorry that it took so long for our society to actually say anything on here. Founding this society has been rather hectic, especially considering that Oxford terms are generally hellish (imagine trying to cram one of your terms into 8 weeks and you get a pretty good idea, but it's worse still as we average about 3 tutorials a week, with work to do for all of them - none of this self-studying stuff for Oxford students). Anyway, due to some prodding (well, lots of prodding) from Jenna, I'm here now. Let me tell you a bit about us.
You guys are probably wondering why we exist in the first place, when there is already a well-established Oxford Secular Society, so let me get that question out the way. Ox Sec Soc was formed in Trinity 2006, and is open to believers and nonbelievers alike - basically anyone who supports secularism. It's a fairly large society - I think it might be the largest secular student society in the country (is that right?). As a society, they are very strict about following their name, and have made a big thing about how they are not an atheist society - everything they do has to do with secularism.
However, some of us felt that while it's a very important part for sure, there's much more to atheism than just secularism, and we wanted a place to explore all the consequences of the nonexistence of God - which obviously could not be Sec Soc. Hence, we formed the Oxford Atheist Society.
As an example, tomorrow we will be holding a debate entitled "Is suffering dissuasive to belief in a benevolent God?" This is not a debate Ox Sec Soc would hold.
OK, moving on, let's actually talk about the Oxford Atheist Society now. Will and I co-founded the society last term, and are currently serving as joint Presidents (having us both as President seemed the simplest way to do it, and has worked quite well so far). This term is in a sense our first "proper" term as we now have membership fees set up and are having guest speakers etc. In fact you can see more about what we've got going on on our website: http://www.oxfordatheists.org.uk/
The only position of the society is that it does not believe in God, and apart from this everything is up for debate, with all other opinions coming from individual members and speakers.
We had an extremely successful fresher's fair (we actually got more mailing list signups than the Christian Union), but it is against the rules for people to pay to join societies at Oxford Fresher's Fair, and we've been struggling ever so slightly to get paid members since. Since then though we've just had welcome drinks and a film showing, so it's still early days. I think we can now afford our guest lineup for this term, let's hope we get more members or else we'll have to cancel some of those future speakers! :eek:
Firstly, let me say sorry that it took so long for our society to actually say anything on here. Founding this society has been rather hectic, especially considering that Oxford terms are generally hellish (imagine trying to cram one of your terms into 8 weeks and you get a pretty good idea, but it's worse still as we average about 3 tutorials a week, with work to do for all of them - none of this self-studying stuff for Oxford students). Anyway, due to some prodding (well, lots of prodding) from Jenna, I'm here now. Let me tell you a bit about us.
You guys are probably wondering why we exist in the first place, when there is already a well-established Oxford Secular Society, so let me get that question out the way. Ox Sec Soc was formed in Trinity 2006, and is open to believers and nonbelievers alike - basically anyone who supports secularism. It's a fairly large society - I think it might be the largest secular student society in the country (is that right?). As a society, they are very strict about following their name, and have made a big thing about how they are not an atheist society - everything they do has to do with secularism.
However, some of us felt that while it's a very important part for sure, there's much more to atheism than just secularism, and we wanted a place to explore all the consequences of the nonexistence of God - which obviously could not be Sec Soc. Hence, we formed the Oxford Atheist Society.
As an example, tomorrow we will be holding a debate entitled "Is suffering dissuasive to belief in a benevolent God?" This is not a debate Ox Sec Soc would hold.
OK, moving on, let's actually talk about the Oxford Atheist Society now. Will and I co-founded the society last term, and are currently serving as joint Presidents (having us both as President seemed the simplest way to do it, and has worked quite well so far). This term is in a sense our first "proper" term as we now have membership fees set up and are having guest speakers etc. In fact you can see more about what we've got going on on our website: http://www.oxfordatheists.org.uk/
The only position of the society is that it does not believe in God, and apart from this everything is up for debate, with all other opinions coming from individual members and speakers.
We had an extremely successful fresher's fair (we actually got more mailing list signups than the Christian Union), but it is against the rules for people to pay to join societies at Oxford Fresher's Fair, and we've been struggling ever so slightly to get paid members since. Since then though we've just had welcome drinks and a film showing, so it's still early days. I think we can now afford our guest lineup for this term, let's hope we get more members or else we'll have to cancel some of those future speakers! :eek: