In an effort to change preconceived notions of what it means to be atheist, Free Thinking Frogs, a student organization, gave students the opportunity to ask questions.

The Free Thinking Frogs declared Tuesday night “Ask An Atheist Day.”

Student members of Free Thinking Frogs consider themselves to be secular, or not bound by religious rules. Many categorize themselves as atheists, agnostics, humanists and skeptics, said Alexis Lohse, the group’s founder and junior political science major.

“There’s a lot of stereotypes about atheists,” sophomore computer science major Harrison Engel said. “People think we’re arrogant, people think we’re amoral, people think that we’re mean-spirited.”

Any student was welcome at the forum. They prompted questions to the group about heaven and hell, varying upbringings, science and morality.

“A lot of times you encounter people with other beliefs via short snippets on a Facebook post, so that doesn’t have any real dimension. That doesn’t have any real human factor to it,” Lohse said.

Establishing the organization last spring did not go unnoticed. The news of an atheist organization on TCU’s campus caught the attention of several news outlets, including WFAA and Fox 4.

The group decided to begin its first semester on campus with the forum in order to open up about lifestyles and mentalities of the members of the group, Lohse said. The group began with 12 members in the spring and has more than doubled since then.

“We knew that starting an organization like this would raise a lot of questions for a lot of students and we wanted to create an opportunity to have a dialogue about misconceptions,” Lohse said.

Sophomore psychology major Tyler Casteel-Provost is a Christian who said he knew very little about atheists before the forum. He said he now has a new perception of atheists and how they think.

“If you don’t understand, it’s scary, so you shy away from those people,” Casteel-Provost said. “But when you come out here and you see that these people are humans, they have hearts that beat and they breathe and everything and they have emotions just like you. You see easier ways to connect with people.”

First-year transfer student Joel Huffman said he had friends on both sides of the spectrum, Christian and atheist, and that he would come to another forum like it in the future.

“You can always learn something from someone else, especially just to support them and understand them as a person and where they’re coming from,” Huffman said.

Sophomore piano performance graduate student Edo Frenkel said although attended a Jewish school, he considers himself to be a “devout atheist.” Frenkel said talking with students with different beliefs was a subtle reminder of how friendly people can be.

“It’s just really nice when you just have a purely nice thing,” he said. “Everyone’s just talking and regardless of what we think about something, regardless of the differences, we’re just unified.”

The Free Thinking Frogs are part of the Religious and Spiritual Life department at TCU. Lohse said in the future the group hopes to partner with other groups in the program for public forums and bringing different speakers to campus.

The Free Thinking Frogs meet every Thursday at 7 p.m. in Jarvis Hall.