Atheists lead a discussion to educate public
Atheists discuss transitions from Christians and Quakers to atheism
People have the chance to ask questions of a belief system they may not know anything about.
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Henry Bernberg was asked to give a brief introduction about how he came to be an atheist during the “Ask an Atheist” event Wednesday night in the Kansas Union.
Bernberg, Northbrook, Ill., sophomore, said his faith, or rather no faith, started when he began to question what he had previously believed.
“How likely is it that there is a creator?” he asked. “I came to the realization that I don’t really agree with religion.”
They felt it was best that I educate myself.
- Colin Barness, Overland Park freshman
Bernberg, along with Chris Redford, Wellington graduate student, and Colin Barness, Overland Park freshman, were part of the three-person panel representing the Society of Open-Minded Atheists and Agnostics that fielded questions from the audience about the hows and whys of what they believe and disbelieve.
“Some people have the assumption we have horns,” Bernberg said. “We want to say what we believe and why we believe it.”
Barness’s atheist beliefs came about as a result of a lifelong interest in religious literature. Even though his parents were religious he said his parents didn’t push their beliefs on him.
“They felt it was best that I educate myself,” he said.
He shifted to Quakerism later in his life because he said he appreciated the open nature of Quaker beliefs. From those beliefs he said he progressed to nonreligious beliefs and ultimately to becoming a “strong” atheist, meaning specifically that he believed there isn’t a god.
Redford said he had been a Pentecostal whose life goal was to understand the will of god.
“My number one priority was being a Christian,” he said.
After debating with an atheist professor from Arizona online, Redford reached the conclusion that he had been making a lot of assumptions about the universe.
“You could explain everything I was explaining without a god there,” he said.
The panel was then asked what brought them to Kansas, a recurrent hotbed for debate over religious issues like evolution and abortion.
Bernberg said he had known about religious issues in Kansas, but that those arguments never struck him until he returned to his home in Illinois and caught up with some of his former high school teachers.
“The science teachers were goodheartedly making fun of me for going here,” he said.
The panel was also asked why they trust science over religion, if it takes more faith to have no faith than just having a belief in the supernatural, and if they’ve ever been persecuted for their atheist beliefs.
Barness said he felt like regardless of faith, everybody is at times persecuted for something and that committing to atheism could have some negative effects.
“If somebody in the presidential election announced they were atheist, their campaign wouldn’t make it even though the qualities of leaders don’t have anything to do with religion,” he said.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
—Edited by Lisa Tilson
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