Candy, ghosts, and all things spooky are not uncommon during this time of the year around Iowa City, but something new has emerged from a campus organization.

On Oct. 30, Secular Students at Iowa hosted its second annual “Graveyard of the Gods.” The display appeared on the Pentacrest and featured a variety of tombstones depicting different “forgotten” gods no longer popular or worshipped from a wide range of cultures and religions.

Secular Students is an official student organization at the University of Iowa, affiliated with the Secular Student Alliance.

“Our two main principles are to create a community for secular students on campus,” said Ian Wold, the public-relations coordinator of the group. “Our second purpose is to advocate for secular values such as separation of church and state or, in this case, that Blaise Pascal’s Wager is not working.”

Pascal was a 17th-century French philosopher who held that all humans bet on God’s existence with their lives.

“Blaise Pascal’s Wager asks if it is rational to believe in God, because if God happens to exist, then the reward for believing in him is great, whereas if one does not believe in him, the punishment is not great,” Wold said. “It really only works when you have one God to bet on. Not over 8,000.”

Out of all the gods on display, Wold said he had a particular favorite: Cocomama, the Incan goddess of recreational drug use.

Wold said Secular Students has a variety of different activities during their weekly meetings.

“Sometimes, we invite guest speakers, which are mostly professors from the university,” he said. “We hold mini debates, watch documentaries, we talk about secular topics and issues and it’s a really fun time.”

Thomas Panther, advocacy coordinator for the group, said the organization helps members break free of social stigma surrounding their religious beliefs.

“The people are really nice. Also it’s really nice to work toward getting rid of the stigma of being an atheist,” Panther said. “I feel like there is a huge stigma going around where people don’t want to associate themselves being an atheist when a lot of times they are.”

Panther said he was eager to get the word out about Graveyard of the Gods.

“I think it’s very educational. I actually just like seeing all these gods from different cultures,” he said.

Panther said his favorite god in the display was the Roman Jupiter, with Zeus as the Greek equivalent.

San Jeewv stopped to take a look at what the display was all about and appreciated the historical aspect.