As the president of ASU’s only atheist religious organization, Joshua Horn has learned that not all campus groups value “free thought” as highly as his does.

The computer information systems freshman heads the Secular Free Thought Society of ASU, a group that promotes scientific and philosophical skepticism of religion.

But Horn said he has received a lot of backlash from peers.

“The biggest challenge is the diversity of reactions we encounter when we’re trying to recruit,” Horn said. “Some people, upon seeing the word ‘secular,’ become furious.”

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Some students begin cursing and yelling at members of the Free Thought Society, rather than openly discussing ideas.

Bystanders have their own opinions about what the club stands for and respond emotionally, often causing members of his club to engage in shouting matches in front of the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus, Horn said.

The heated discussions have left the club with somewhat of a stigma, he said, and as a result, the group suffers when it comes to networking with other religious groups.

Horn recalled a campus religious event last spring the club wasn’t invited to, a panel where The Council of Religious Advisors invited various religious leaders to discuss what science and religion say about human origins.

“Even though we’re classified as a religious organization, we were never told about it,” Horn said, adding that he wants to network with other religious clubs at ASU this semester in hopes of setting up debates.

The clubs have never networked in the past, he said.

“I’m going to work really hard to change all that,” Horn said.

Shotsy Abramson, president of The Council of Religious Advisors, said the group wasn’t invited because leaders were looking for people within their own community.

There’s a difference between religious groups and secular groups, she said.

“They’re just making something out of nothing,” Abramson said.

Economics junior Averroes Paracha, an active member of the Secular Free Thought Society since fall 2008, said he joined because he found the members to be like-minded and he needed a place to discuss ideas.

As a former follower of Islam, Paracha said he left the religion in 2004 because he had too many unanswered questions.

“For the longest time I felt extremely ostracized by the Muslim community,” he said.

Paracha said he was given the cold shoulder by religious leaders and his family because he vocalized his opinions.

“I stirred up the pot a few times,” Paracha said. “One day, I was told by the imam of the mosque to get the hell out of there.”

He eventually gave up on Islam and adopted atheism fully. Paracha found the people in the Secular Free Thought Society of ASU to be more intellectually welcoming, he said.

“It felt like I was home for the first time in a couple of years,” Paracha said. “ I finally found a place where I can be with people whom I can agree or comfortably disagree.”

Reach the reporter at dbjoraas@asu.edu