Society of cynics spread knowledge at Western

By Brian Horstmann

Life in the United States hinges on the fact that a vast majority of people are willing to follow rules and harbor beliefs based more on faith and idealism than they are practicality or scientific truth. However, there is a group of individuals within the greater animal, one that looks at commonly held beliefs and questions their true worth, asking if the way things are is the way things should be. You might call them… skeptical of what is happening and what is believed or taught to be true.

In recent years, Skeptic’s Societies have been popping up in universities and other show grounds of “forward thinking.” Missouri Western is luckily one of those universities, as it is the home of a modest group of skeptical students, thriving on the development of a different, recognizable view to what is regularly offered on the plate of day-to-day life.

The organization was started in 2009 by David Carr, a Psychology major who began questioning popular religions early in life, as his parents moved from one church to another. The goals for the group, as listed on its Facebook page, include establishing a “home for atheists, agnostics, and other freethinkers at Missouri Western State University,” to “challenge believers in God, psychics and all other supernatural occurrences with arguments based on scientific evidence, logic, and reason” and to “present a positive view of atheism to the community.”

It’s clear that the group is still forming at an early stage, having only 17 members on its Facebook page. There is definitely room to grow, and there is a presence on campus that would take interest in a meeting of like-minded skeptics.

Senior and biology major Matthew Stehly was happy to hear that the group existed, and that he would be drawn to future meetings. Among Stehly’s various skepticisms, he included religion, the existence of God, pygmies and teapots in space. He is a prime example of atheism on the Missouri Western campus, choosing his own beliefs without treading on someone else’s.

“If it works for you, that’s completely fine, but don’t take hand-me-down beliefs as being true,” Stehly said. “Think for yourself. Use logic.”
Some students, like Junior Hanna Greenwell, think that the Skeptic’s Society would be a good place for people to get their different ideas out in the open.

“I think people should be skeptical and open minded to certain things of their own interest,” Greenwell said. “Everyone’s different, so I guess it just depends what meets their fancy, you know?”

While the Skeptic’s Society meets on Wednesdays on campus and at the Rolling Hills Library on Sundays, one can see that the on-campus presence of skeptics falls short of the group of older members who attend meetings at Rolling Hills.

“The majority that come are at least above 50,” Carr said of the off-campus meetings. Obviously, the more experienced and world-weary members of the St. Joseph community are showing off their skepticism at a much higher level than the young. However, all organizations have to crawl before they can walk, and the numbers have grown slowly but surely since the group’s first meeting at Hazel’s Coffee Shop, with only two people in attendance. It stands to reason that the longer the group holds out and more word spreads, more curious and open-minded people will arrive to discuss matters of belief, truth and logic.

While the group is mainly made up of atheists and agnostics, anyone with a knack for Devil’s Advocate would surely find a worthy forum to profess differing opinions and explanations for various behaviors.

Having a Skeptic’s Society around could do a lot of good for communities in the Bible belt, showcasing opinions that go largely unheard in a public gathering, especially any gathering with a sense of formality and purpose.

Religious groups are obviously welcome to defend their beliefs, or at least discuss them and try to help others understand them better, which could be the ultimate benefit of Missouri Western having a Skeptic’s Society. Believers and non-believers alike have a common ground where the purpose is to challenge one another with conflicting thoughts so that a new plateau may be reached, further promoting the ultimate goal of all houses of thought.