The Secular Student Alliance at Iowa State aims to provide a space for atheists, agnostics, those questioning their beliefs, those affiliated with no religion and open-minded religious students.

Matthew Pfab, a graduate student in entomology and the president of the Secular Student Alliance, said for those who enjoy being skeptical about things, he highly recommends attending a meeting. Pfab said he thinks a lot of students are atheists, agnostics or just non-believers, and even if they believe in God, they may not believe in organized religion.

“If you are trying to figure out where you stand with your religion currently, because I know a lot of people are kind of losing it recently, I would recommend [Secular Student Alliance] as a safe space to process that better,” Pfab said. “If you feel like you’ve been hurt by religion and need a space to vent about it, this is a pretty good space for that. Or even if you’re just an open-minded religious person, I would highly recommend it so you can have some more viewpoints.”

Pfab said the club is in its recruitment process after a pause in activity following the pandemic.

“The club used to be the Iowa State atheist and agnostic society, but COVID hit it pretty bad,” Pfab said. “So they shut down. And I started trying to revive it last summer, and it finally got going this spring.”

Pfab said he thinks the club will be able to get more events going once they get past the initial hump of recruiting members.

According to Pfab, meetings are informal and discussion-based, with the club branching out to things like campus outreach.

With people in front of the library often preaching the Bible and promoting religious messages, Pfab said the Secular Student Alliance might as well add a different message for various viewpoints.

At meetings, club members choose a topic related to secular issues for discussion, “whether that be separation of church and state or religion or something maybe science-related like evolution,” Pfab said.

“Then we’ll discuss the basics and then just kind of let the discussion go from there because a lot of people know a lot of different things, and it’s fun bouncing ideas off of each other in a safe, non-judgmental space,” Pfab said.

Secular Student Alliance meets from 5:30 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday in 2019 Morrill Hall. More information on the club can be found here.