The University of Texas at San Antonio campus has been host to a heated meeting of the minds over the past week where an atheist group called Atheist Agenda has organized a campaign called “Smut for Smut.”

The purpose of this campaign is for students to bring in a Bible or other religious texts, to trade in for pornographic material. Members of the organization argue that religious texts contain just as much violence and sexuality as any pornographic magazine does – implying that the two are interchangeable. By having an exchange table set up at the UTSA campus, Atheist Agenda hopes to spark controversy, ignite debate and recruit more members.

Even though the members of Atheist Agenda have a Constitutional right to express their points of view concerning religious texts, I do not think that the way they have decided to go about demonstrating these points is very effective, or very mature. I understand their desire for debate, but sadly, I think that the way they decided to approach it has completely broken down any willingness for real interaction and discussion. A healthy discussion with those in opposition could pave the way for openness and understanding and lead to a more peaceful coexistence.

My faith and relationship with God is very strong, even though I choose not to follow any religion. I do not think my background presents a huge bias when I say that if Atheist Agenda really wanted to have intellectual discussions about religious texts and their roles in society, they could have picked a better medium to do so. This goes beyond their opinion of the Bible or the Quran — offending people, handing out pornography at a college campus and simply wanting to gain all of this attention undermines any intention of debate that they might say they have. This campaign does not seem to call for discussion, but rather for segregation, anger and closed-mindedness.

Whether people believe they are right or not, if the Atheist Agenda members are concerned about these religious books being a bad source of morality and foundation for society, then why are they putting up all of these walls and divisions? I think we can all, believers or not, Christians or Atheists, agree that respect should be one of the basic virtues that leads discussion and interaction.