In the world we live in, people are constantly being told what and how to think. On TV, intrusive commercials tell us what brand of jeans to wear. At religious meetings, we are told what songs to listen to and what verses we should read. Even at MSU, we have professors who tell us how to solve math problems or write good books.

Every day, in one way or the other and whether we know it or not, we hand away a little bit of our own intellectual independence.

It was for this reason that I was gratified when I found a little modest, yet enriching oasis on campus known as the MSU Freethinker Alliance.

For those of you who are tired of being held by the hand and babied by classrooms with watered-down textbooks, this is the place to be. At 7:15 p.m. every Thursday in 119 Psychology Building, a Freethinker meeting is held in which a new topic is presented and then openly discussed around the table.

Unlike many clubs, conformity is shunned and debate is more than welcomed. The meetings are so open-ended, in fact, that anyone can present a group presentation.

The topics are varied and recently have included the social commentary on the TV show South Park, touring eastern Europe and affirmative action.

Any topic is welcome, but one of the most heated topics is religion. Here, the club becomes a compact, free-for-all cage match. Some people leave bloodied, some people leave snickering and sometimes neither happens and everyone just gets some tea. Whatever happens, in the end, people learn something new and are respected for their opinions.

What makes this so compelling is that this club gives the unique experience of going in with your own set of beliefs, seeing for yourself how valid your ideas actually are, then using logic and judgment to either find new ways of understanding your own beliefs or just adopting new ones.

The group members are as diverse as the topics discussed. Some have been Christians, others have been agnostics, atheists, humanists and so on. Instead of diversity being feared or avoided, it is enjoyed. I really doubt if there's another club like it, where, even if you're not one of them, you're invited to come back for more argumentation the following week.

It is this kind of thinking that needs to be nurtured more at universities across the country.

Too often, our society teaches people to be unnecessarily confrontational to those whose opinions differ from ours. Even if debate is encouraged, it often devolves into nothing more than useless bickering.

On all the news shows on the favorite networks, we always see partisan idiots yelling over each other as if one could yell the other into shaking submission. This is not how to debate intelligibly, and it's certainly not how you find a conclusion to the question at hand.

At the Freethinker meetings, however, there is a moderator who often reels in the conversation when it goes too far off track. Everyone is allowed to speak, but everyone must speak in turn. Also, if an arguer throws out faulty logic, it is not uncommon for them to be reprimanded by being told they are guilty of a logical fallacy, which is a form of illogical or irrational debate.

These little debates can prove to be quite enriching. A lot of the logical fallacies brought up are used by politicians daily, almost as if they have a list of them hidden away in their pocket. Luckily for me, I know quite a few of them, so I can identify when someone is making arguments that are just plain fallacious.

Even better, the meetings are good for fine-tuning your arguing skills. So next time you're debating with your girlfriend, parents, dog or whoever about something you think you are right about, you'll have all the tools you need to win the discussion.

Freethinking is needed in the world today. This is the kind of stuff university campuses were made for: to develop minds, so that as intelligent people, thoughts can be challenged rather than just accepted. Even if they're not all ideological concepts, at least it's a nice alternative to Campus Crusade for Christ and frat houses.

And considering the intellectual terrain of most universities, that says a lot.

Isaac DeVille is an MSU English junior and State News columnist. Reach him at devillei@msu.edu.