About Us
What is the Secular Alliance of IU?
The Secular Alliance is a group on the IU Bloomington campus dedicated to secularists and the nonreligious and the issues that face them. Secularists may include atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, skeptics and those with other self-described secular world views.
For more information about secularism, continue to the Understanding page.
What does the SAIU do?
A lot. We have regular, weekly meetings which include discussion, movie screenings, and community service.
Sundays @ 7pm – Russell’s Tea Parties: Held in honor of Bertrand Russell’s “teapot” thought experiment, these are the group’s weekly discussion meetings, where we talk about anything from events in the news to secular ethics to the Bible to alternative medicine. We meet in Student Building 231 to talk and — yes! — drink tea and cocoa.
Thursdays @ 7pm – Movie Nights: A time to relax and watch a movie, documentary or video lecture, usually one related to science, reason, atheism or religion. These are held in Lindley Hall 102, which has comfy, theatre-style seats!
We also do service and volunteering, usually every other weekend. Check our service page for upcoming service dates!
In addition to weekly events, we often bring speakers to the IU campus for public lectures and debates — we have hosted Richard Dawkins, author of “The Selfish Gene” and “The God Delusion,” as well as other speakers including John Loftus (author of “Why I Became a Christian”), Eddie Tabash (constitutional lawyer and member of CFI), and Annie Laurie Gaylor (Co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation).
We have also been involved with the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, a group which has put ads saying “You can be good without God” on buses in Bloomington and other places around Indiana.
We occasionally take group field trips to places that pique our interest. We’ve twice visited the Creation Museum, a “museum” advocating creationism and intelligent design, and in 2009 we made a video of our adventure. We’ve been to the Stone Age Institute, and were given a private tour of this center for the study of early human technology. Our most recent trip was a day at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, IN, a haven for hundreds of big cats like lions and tigers that have been rescued from non-licensed owners and circuses.
We are always looking for more ways to serve our members, so if you have ideas for events you think would be interesting or fun, talk to an officer at one of our meetings or contact us and let us know!
Who is allowed to join SAIU?
Most of our members tend to be secular students at IU, but anyone from IU Bloomington is welcome to join, be they faculty, staff, or student, young or old, secular or religious. If for any reason you can’t or would prefer not to attend our meetings, but still want to be involved, you’re welcome to post on our forum.
How do I get a t-shirt?
A t-shirt design is posted under the resources section of our website. T-shirts can be ordered by asking at a meeting or emailing us with your size. The price is $20, benefits the group and helps pay for activities, food, and other group-related items that help with our goals of strengthening IU’s secular community, educating the public about secularism, providing service to Bloomington and IU, and supporting the values of separation of church and state. If any of our causes interest you, you’re welcome to contact us about making donations.
