I remember the first brunch that I attended with the UNI group. I didn’t have a car, so one of the group members, Trevor, drove me there. Right away, he said, “I looked on your Facebook profile, and it says that you’re Unitarian. What’s that about?” I was a bit taken aback by how forward he was with the subject of our conversation, but it turned into the first of many great discussions that I had with the group’s members.
I was immediately hooked. I loved the meetings; any issue was open for analysis. Members of the group had in-depth, intelligent dialogue with people, often disagreeing with each other on a variety of subjects, and, in the end, everyone remained friends. There were no hard feelings. I really enjoyed that.
Since I joined, the group’s biggest successes have been simply bringing a nonreligious conversation to UNI’s campus. I can’t count how many Christian groups there are on our campus. Our group started just a few years ago, and in that short period of time, we’ve become one of the most well-known and best-run student organizations. We’re quite active on campus; our most prominent event every year is called Blasphemy Rights Day during which we emphasize the importance of free speech in the world. We also hold a monthly discussion event with other religious groups on campus, which, I think, exposes many people to a worldview that, having grown up in small-town Iowa, they’d likely never considered. We also have a tremendous sense of community. Every Sunday, we get together for brunch; we all enjoy each other’s company. The group helps me feel comfortable being nonreligious.
People are often curious about what can be done to bring more women to the secular movement. One reason that there aren’t more women is likely because atheism is typically associated with individuals who lack emotion. People often see atheism as something that’s cold, and women generally don’t want to identify with something like that.
I would love to see more women come out, mostly because of how my worldview has influenced me as a person. I think I’m more open-minded because I’m not religious. I know that there are plenty of open-minded religious people living in Iowa, but I think I’m more willing than most of my state’s citizens to take any claim and think about it seriously without immediately dismissing it. Most people in Iowa seem to assume that God exists, without seriously considering their position. Because I knew from a young age that I held a minority view on some important topics, I realized that I needed to consider all of my beliefs seriously.
Despite its advantages, being an atheist does get hard sometimes. I went on a student abroad trip in Spain and had to make new friends who came from my university. When people found out that I didn’t believe in God, many of them told me that they never thought they’d be friends with an atheist. I’ve had to break down some social barriers, which is something that most people don’t necessarily have to do.
I often think about what my life would be like if I hadn’t come to UNI, if I hadn’t gone to a school with such a strong secular group. Before I came to college, I didn’t even know that a secular movement was taking place. What we’re doing is really important because I think our activism truly influences people. If I hadn’t gotten involved in my group, I’d probably still largely identify with the UU Church.
Despite our significant differences with religions, I think the secular movement can look at churches to understand how they attract so many people. They build environments where people feel welcome, like they have a family of people behind them, supporting them. Our group has done an amazing job emphasizing community. We try to make our freshmen feel like they have a place right away, something that’s proven to be incredibly valuable in creating cohesion. I think the secular movement can learn from us.
Overall, I’m quite satisfied with my activism and with my perspective on the world. Even though I hear and read about people making rude comments about atheists, I’m confident in my worldview and know that my beliefs are right. I continue to have a lot of gratitude for this life that I have.
XIX.
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Hemant Mehta: Both Friendly and Atheist
“Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person you will pass in the street today, is going to die. Living long enough, each will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world.
Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?”
Rarely are the words “friendly” and “atheist” juxtaposed in American culture. But, on the internet today, one U.S. citizen is linked with that identify more than any other: Hemant Mehta. Hemant was born to Indian parents of the Jain religion. Like many others in this book, his worldview was profoundly shaped by the internet and the arguments for atheism that can be found within it. In college, largely because of the resources he found online, he became more comfortable with his worldview and began a group to socialize with his nonreligious peers.
Following a brief stint in medical school, Hemant began writing a book, I Sold My Soul on Ebay, which was eventually published by WaterBrook Press. During his research for the book, he found, to his surprise, most religious people, Christians specifically, to be friendly and, in many instances, open-minded. Although his public atheism has been challenging at times — the Illinois Family Institute contacted the administrators of the high school at which he teaches to inform them of his heresy — Hemant continues to be both an optimist about the secular movement and an open and eager communicator with the religious community at large.
My parents are from India. They came to the United States in the late 1970s. I was born in 1983 and was raised in America. I grew up in the Jain religion. Jains believe in nonviolence in nearly every way. They’re vegetarian. Really devout Jains cover their mouths as they talk in an attempt to avoid killing any bacteria in the air. They might also sweep the ground in front of them as they walk so that they won’t kill any bugs. I was never that devout, but many of the Jain principles make a lot of sense to me. I think their philosophy generally leads to a good way to live one’s life.
Jains do believe in supernatural things, but they do not believe in a creator God. Regardless, my family did believe in God, although no one ever defined what “God” meant. I was always taught to pray to God, and I would each night. I never felt as though God ever spoke back to me; it was like a one-way conversation. God never seemed to be listening or responding. I knew Christians who would rationalize why God wasn’t answering my prayers by saying, “God knows what’s best for you, so even if you come across an obstacle and God doesn’t give you what you want, that’s God testing you.” At the time, I wasn’t quite sure what I believed.
When I was 14, my family moved from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Orland Park, Illinois. Having to go from a place where I had a lot of friends in junior high to starting fresh at a high school of more than 3,000 kids and not knowing anybody, I began to question God for the first time. I started asking myself, “If my religion is right, how come no one else has even heard of the Jain religion? And if I’m right, why doesn’t anyone else believe in reincarnation like Jains do? Is there any truth to this?” I’d go on AOL late at night looking for answers, grasping at straws. I found a couple atheistic websites that became very influential to me. The more I read about what atheists had to say, the more I realized that I agreed with them. I discovered that I didn’t just think that Jainism was wrong, I thought that religion as a whole was wrong. Over the course of only a couple months, I became an atheist.