The debate on campus between those who believe in God and those who are secular humanists is forever raging.

The chairman of Iowa State’s religious studies department has a unique take on the discussion.

Hector Avalos is an atheist — a fact he doesn’t disclose to his students until the last day of class — and adviser to one of ISU’s newest clubs, ISU Atheist & Agnostic Society.

The club has caused a fair amount of controversy at ISU, but Avalos said it is much-needed on a campus with a large number of Christian student organizations.

Avalos, who said he was chosen as adviser because he’s “well-known as somebody who is a secular humanist,” said he did have some advice to offer the club officers.

“My advice was that we had to be a constructive group,” he said. “We had to have constructive dialogue and function as a support group for atheists and like-minded people.”

Avalos said he isn’t aware of too much opposition to the group. “It’s hard to say,” he said.

Avalos said both he and the club welcome constructive criticism, “as long as it’s fair.”

Attendance at the group has been impressive, he said, with about 30 people coming to the first meeting.

The professors says another job of the group is to try to eradicate stereotypes surrounding secular humanists.

“We wanted to dispel this myth that atheists are embittered people who hate the world,” he said.

On the contrary, Avalos said atheists, because they believe this is the only life they have, tend to try make it very meaningful.

This mentality, Avalos said, inspires atheists to “make this world the best they can.”

The Mexican-born Avalos wasn’t always a secular humanist. Avalos grew up as a child evangelist, a fundamentalist Christian.

During his sermons, Avalos said, he was occasionally pelted with stones, which he said makes the occasional opposition to his atheism seem small in comparison.

After studying the Bible intensely, Avalos became an atheist at the age of 19.

“I know how that thought process works; in order [to promote Christianity], I had to learn how to refute the other arguments,” he said.

It was during this period of soul-searching that Avalos began to wonder about his own beliefs. “The question came, ‘How could I ever know?'” he said.

Being an atheist, Avalos said, gives him a certain amount of freedom.

“You appreciate more of what you have; you live for this life, you don’t live for another one,” he said.

Despite his early Christian background, Avalos said his family doesn’t have a major problem with his choice.

“They haven’t disowned me; they love me just as much,” he said. “It wasn’t that much of a problem.”

As for his teaching, Avalos said he’s received very positive marks from teacher evaluations, and most of his students cannot gather from his lectures that he’s an atheist.

Avalos is also proud of the fact that there is more religious diversity in Iowa.

“There are more Muslims, more Hindus,” he said. “There is this religious diversity that’s growing.”