There are probably no gods.” Many of us have seen these words on plain white fliers posted on campus bulletin boards or scrawled on the sidewalk as we walk to class. Although some may be too disinterested to be affected, it is certainly a bold statement to be made in such a casual context.

However, for those who are offended by the general message of the posters put out by NIU’s Atheists, Agnostics, and Free-Thinkers Society (AAFT), I have a simple question. Is a harmless poster, worded with enough courtesy to use a qualifier like “probably,” really that much more offensive than a man commandeering the King Memorial Commons to spew eternal condemnations under the misnomer of Christian evangelism?

I realize that one man who chooses to use his lunch breaks to personally warn homosexuals about their inevitable eternal suffering does not represent an entire faith, but I have found myself forced to endure listening to such rants or explain why I don’t go to church to representatives of local churches too many times. I find these types of encounters to be far more imposing, and therefore offensive, than any poster I have seen.

“It is just a statement of what it means to be an atheist,” said Christopher George, junior history and philosophy major and current AAFT president. “Would it be inconsiderate for a Muslim to write ‘Muhammad was the final prophet?’ Would it be wrong for the vegetarian groups to write ‘Factory farming is cruelty?’ To call these two statements inconsiderate is to proclaim that being of these two groups is inconsiderate.”

America has always prided itself on its freedom of religion, but it seems that this ideal has not totally been extended to include freedom from religion as atheism continues to have a negative stigma attached to it.

“It is hard to gauge what a belief system is when you look from the outside in,” said Mimoza Shabani, senior philosophy and psychology major and vice president of AAFT. “We cleared up a lot of misconceptions about atheism our first meeting. Atheists aren’t here to demoralize society. We are here to ask a simple, incredibly important question: ‘Are there really gods?'”

Ironically enough, the group, which meets Wednesdays from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Neptune Central smart classroom, had to register as a religious group because of a decision of the Student Association Senate based on a Supreme Court case and is consequently ineligible to receive funding from NIU.

However, the group’s meetings are not entirely dedicated to religious discussions and they still manage to host several functions, all of which are paid for out-of-pocket by members.

“We are planning a barbecue…hosting a lecture, showing movies, participating in charity, and performing other tasks still on the drawing board,” Shabani said.

“We also will be attempting to join with other organizations this year for the purpose of doing community service,” George said. “It seems inconceivable to discuss ethics and the good without attempting, in some fashion, to make the world better.”

So before you rush to judgment and assume that they’re all a bunch of anarchistic hedonists who want nothing more than to do away with everything you believe in, maybe you should attend a meeting and engage in an open-minded discussion with them. They won’t yell at you and tell you that you’re going to an eternal lake of fire, I promise.