At religious campuses, atheist groups operate underground

[vsedriver]

I understand your concern, but students of different religions go to universities of another religion, all the time. Notre Dame has Jewish clubs. It helps inter-religious understanding and cooperation.

Key word ‘inter-religious’. These are all ‘religious’ groups. An atheist group is not a religion. This is the equivalent of having a Klu Klux Klan group on a traditional Black University campus. Their philosophies are polar opposites.

 

[vsedriver]

Why not? An atheist university might simply be a university whose mission is to support atheism, rather than destroy or suppress religious belief.

how do you support atheism without destroying or suppressing religious belief?

 

[vsedriver]

Lots of non-Catholic parents agree with the Catholic school emphasis upon discipline and education, without being Catholic.

right, but you don’t see them asking the school to support their non-Catholic/religious POV.

 

[amber_lux]

so if they don’t why pay to go there?

In Catholic Schools, you won’t “get a ‘B’ simply because you show up in class everyday”, which is the case in public schools:

• As a student, I like the idea of getting a “B”, without having to take any tests, or do the final;
• As a parent, I’m horrified that grades are obtained simply on the basis of attendance;
• As one expecting an education, I want my money back, because I did not receive an education from the public school;
• As a taxpayer, it makes me think that each and every public school should be shut down, because schools obviously are not even paying lip service to providing an education, which is the sole reason for their existence;

Amber

 

[CatholicTrekkie]

That drives me nuts. The underlying assumption is that you don’t really think if you have faith. Perhaps that’s true for some, but you could also say that of atheists, agnostics, etc. I know quite a few who refuse to give serious study to the claims of Christianity. “Free thinking,” then, is much more a matter of personality than one’s religious affiliation or lack thereof.

Okay.

I’m off my soapbox now.

Haha, I feel exactly the same way. The designation “Freethinkers” feels to me to be extremely antagonistic of those who use this label. What they’re implying is that if you have faith you’re not really “thinking”, but the same thing can be said of many atheists/agnostics who never question their atheism. It’s just feels very passive-aggressive of them to designate themselves like that.