Faith & Culture Groups

Leeds Atheist Society believe this is the one life we have and we should make the most of it! We're a social group united by a desire to question the world around us!

What we're about:

The society has three main aims:

• Provide a forum for discussion and debate on secular issues
• Provide high quality lectures on secularism, science and humanism
• Provide a top quality social life for the irreligious in Leeds!

What we do:

Talks:

We regularly host talks given to the society by guest speakers, each are experts in their area. Most of our talks are about issues that religion would traditionally address: such as ethics, morality and our understanding of the universe. We think that looking at these things from a secular viewpoint is far more interesting! We also talk a lot about the religious-secularity debate; and show how it is still very relevant in the UK and the rest of the world.

Debates:

We provide a forum for lively and open debates, featuring a mixture of external debaters and our own members. We hold several debates over the year, most are about secular issues, but plenty of other topics too. We try and pick debates that will divide the society, because that's far more exciting than a room full of people nodding in agreement! Previous debate topics have included: "Should the UK Ban the Burka", "Richard Dawkins: Positive or Negative?" and (more lighthearted) "The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the One True God"!

Socials:

We have a social on Tuesday evening every week. We also have bigger social events such as our weekend away, club nights and end of year celebrations.

Special Events:

Non-Prophet Week:

It is often suggested that atheists are an uncharitable bunch! Here at Leeds Atheist Society we actively challenge that with the charity work we do! Non-Prophet Week is a national initiative. During this week atheist societies are encouraged to raise money for their charity of choice. There's competition element too, we compete with all the other AHS societies, last year Leeds came a disappointing third place!

Reason Week:

The flagship event of each year is our week long awareness event, Reason Week. It's held towards the end of the year and it's a essentially a celebration of everything that has happened in the previous year as well as raising the profile of the society! Every year we do something bigger and better! What's going to make this year special is that it will be a project for the whole society to get involved in! We'll be starting the planning meetings for this early so there's plenty of time to make this the best Reason Week ever!