About

The Thomas Society is a student group at the Ohio State University. We are committed to creating a “Third Place” at the Ohio State University for conversation about faith, doubt, culture and illumination. Our goal is to make the campus a place of beauty, culture, and relationships among the Faculty, Staff and Students through group meetings, working with other campus organizations, and various educational opportunities.

Abbot of the Society

Jonathan Weyer is a CCO campus minister at The Ohio State University and an ordained minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He is the founder of The Thomas Society, a student led ministry dedicated to answering questions from skeptics, doubters, agnostics and atheists. Along with the atheists at Ohio State, he won a Multicultural Award from the university for working to bridge the gap between atheists and christians. Jonathan has just recently been added to the Secular Student Alliance speaker’s bureau, the only christian and minister to currently have that distinction.

You can email him at jweyer179@gmail.com

It should be pointed out that while he works for the CCO, that the opinions expressed on this blog are his and the individual members of The Thomas Society. They don’t respresent each member. We have a fair amount of disagreement among the members of the society. So, therefore, the views expressed here also do not necessarily represent the CCO. So, if you want to bash someone, bash us. Come to think of it, that might hurt. So, blame someone else.

http://www.ccojubilee.org/

 Fellows of the Thomas Society

Cruz Davis is the student campus president of The Thomas Society. He is a fifth year senior majoring in philosophy at Ohio State. He is working on publishing papers in philsophical journals while he studies, drinks beer and plays in local Columbus bands. He fully confesses the Nicene Creed.

Matt Waitkus is a third year graduate student and a member of Students for Freethought at OSU. He has a pharmacology degree from Ohio State and is pursuing a Ph.D in regulatory biology from Cleveland State. He can be best described as a metaphysical naturalist and materialist. As a supporter of strong atheism, Matt believes that most propositions regarding God are either meaningless or inscrutable.

Michael Riggs is a first year student at the Ohio State University working toward majors in comparative religion and cognitive psychology and is the vice president of Students for Freethought. Michael is a metaphysical naturalist and a weak (negative, agnostic) atheist. As a former Christian, Michael focuses primarily on using the scripture itself to combat Christian theistic claims.

Eric Worringer is a recent graduate from The Ohio State University with a B.A. in Political Science. Most recently he served on staff at Jacob’s Porch, and is currently a candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He is working of his Masters of Divinity from Winebrenner Theological Seminary and his Masters of Sacred Theology from Trinity Lutheran Seminary. His primary interests include the historical Jesus, postmodern Christian expression, modern Lutheran Theology (specifically Carl Braaten, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Jurgen Moltmann), and the deconstructive nature of Christianity.

Julia Nielsen Bingman is a recent graduate from Methodist Theological School in Ohio, where she earned her Master of Divinity. She is currently working toward a Masters in Theological Studies with a specialization in Church History, as well. She is a certified candidate for ordination in the Order of Deacon of the United Methodist Church, after years of wandering around in the Peace Church tradition and as a domestic violence victim advocate. Jules is currently the Parish Associate for Young Adults in Cleveland’s Epworth-Euclid and First United Methodist churches and intern for the West Ohio Conference’s Department of Mission and Justice on Health Reform. She is most interested in the relationships between art, community, social justice, and faith.

Patrick Truitt recieved his B.S. in physics, mathematics and computer science from Gordon College and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland. His is a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University, specializing in experimental condensed matter physics. A Christian and a methodological naturalist, he is interested in the relationship between faith and science.

Matt Jordan is a native of Hudson, Ohio.  He went to college to study broadcast journalism, but had a significant conversion experience during his freshman year that resulted in a desire to serve in full-time ministry.  In preparation for seminary (or so he thought), he changed his major to philosophy–subsequently realizing that a career as a university professor might be a better fit for him than the pastorate.  He has a master’s degree in philosophy from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University (‘03) and a PhD in philosophy from The Ohio State University (‘09).  His dissertation was on the nature of morality, but his interests are fairly wide-ranging.  He currently teaches at Quincy University in Quincy, IL.  Matt is married to a magnificent woman named Jen and has four, like, totally awesome children.