The Auburn Atheists and Agnostics (AAA) brought their message to the Auburn Christian community Sunday night.
The club held its first meeting of the semester, entitled "Dear Christians," as a way to convey its beliefs and agenda to Auburn's Christian population.
"We thought this would be a good opening to our semester as an event," said Seth Denney, vice president of the club and junior in electrical and computer engineering.
Select members of the club gave short presentations on a range of topics including faith, reason and even the meaning of life.
"We really want to interact with the community," said Rebecca Godwin, president of AAA and graduate student in biology, "and we thought it would be a good way to kind of make our side known and also to get some feedback and to open the community and the student body to this idea of open and civil discussion."
Group members said several times their purpose was not to convert Christians, but to bring about a greater understanding between Christians and atheists.
AAA invited any Christian to attend and hear its message.
With every seat filled and the walls lined with standing listeners, the group received the turnout for which it was hoping.
Kyle Casey, freshman in business management and member of the Auburn Christian Student Center, was one of many Christian students at the meeting.
"We discuss God and what we believe and why we believe it to strengthen our faith, and it was an activity for us to come tonight and hear the other side," Casey said.
Following the presentation, attendees were invited to write questions on index cards for the AAA leaders to review and answer.
The questions were at times pointed, but respectful.
"They definitely got their point across," Casey said. "We're going to respect their ideas, and as Christians, we've still got to try and work at them and see if we can (change) what they believe, because that's the way we are, that's what we're supposed to do."
Godwin said she hopes the meeting and others like it will open a spirit of dialogue between the religious and nonreligious communities at Auburn.
The club plans on hosting more events this semester, including an "Ask an Atheist" table in the Student Center, where club members will answer questions.
She emphasized the importance of having an atheist group on campus.
"We don't really have church homes or anything to provide that social network," Godwin said. "So (we are) providing a safe place, a safe social setting, a support kind of group."
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