FreeSAY challenges UBC study, proves they do in fact possess souls
Suhaymath Nasser
Contributor
@excalweb
A York student group set out to challenge the findings of a recent University of British Columbia study which found that atheists were just as trusted by the general public as rapists.
Members of the group FreeSAY (Freethinkers, Skeptics, and Atheists at York) spent several hours each day between January 30 and February 3 in Vari Hall conducting a food drive. Their target was to collect 500 pounds worth of non-perishable goods; instead, they ended up exceeding the target by collecting 550 pounds.
“[We] wanted to prove that atheists do get their moral precepts from sources other than religion and that they do good for its own sake,” says FreeSAY’s media director Chris Taghavi. Their goal, he says, was to counter one of the biggest misconceptions about the atheist community: that a lack of religious belief equates to a lack of morality.
Among the donors was York’s very own Christian group “Living Out Loud,” who contributed between 30 to 50 pounds of goods. In addition, FreeSAY also received monetary donations totaling $280. All proceeds went to the North York Harvest Food Bank.
FreeSAY is hoping to conduct more food drives in the future in order to push continued awareness. As well as generally serving the North York area, the North York Harvest Food Bank also supplies Food 4 Thought, York’s on-campus food bank.
