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Hear moving excerpts of speeches at the Conference on Freedom of Conscience and Expression which took place in London in July, including Maryam Namazie, Bonya Ahmed, Zineb El Rhazoui, Mohammed Alkhadra, A.C. Grayling and Richard Dawkins. After enjoying the atheist song “Like Moths To The Flame” by the Tasmanian group Mama K and the Big Love, we talk with Óscar Pineda, vice president of Guatemala Humanists about their exciting new billboard and video campaign raising the awareness of freethinkers in Central America.
Clarence Darrow statue (paid for by FFRF) is unveiled in Dayton, Tennessee, at the site of the 1925 Scopes Trial. FFRF attorney Sam Grover testifies before a Wisconsin congressional committee opposing a bill to limit abortion training in Wisconsin schools. After hearing Rupert Brooke’s irreverent poem “Heaven,” set to music by Dan Barker, we talk with Egyptian-American ex-Muslim Noura Embabi, president of Muslimish, which fosters dialogue between current and former Muslims.
This week’s show was pre-recorded to air while Dan and Annie Laurie are in England for an international conference on blasphemy and freedom of expression. FFRF staff attorney Andrew Seidel joins co-presidents Barker and Gaylor to talk about the perennial question, “How Can We Be Good Without God?” during FFRF’s “Ask an Atheist” Facebook Live broadcast, taking questions from the audience.
What does the bible say about abortion? Co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor, Dan Barker and FFRF attorney Liz Cavell answer that question during FFRF’s new weekly “Ask an Atheist” series on Facebook Live, taking questions from the audience. Then we speak with Ed Gogol, president of Final Choices Illinois, about the 1-year milestones for “End of Life” laws in California and Canada, as well as the rest of the country, and how religious dogma interferes with the freedom of citizens to make compassionate choices about dying.
FFRF attorney Rebecca Markert updates us on the appeal by the City of Pensacola of our successful lawsuit over a Christian cross in a city park. FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel discusses the impact of of the congressional appropriations bill directing the IRS not to enforce the Johnson Amendment that prohibits churches from engaging in political activity. Then we talk with actor John de Lancie (best known for his role as “Q” in the Star Trek series) who played Clarence Darrow in “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial” play and who will join FFRF at the unveiling of the new Darrow statue in Dayton, Tennessee this week.
Kentucky student activist Lydia Mason, whose essay “Breaking The Chains” won FFRF’s David Hudak Memorial Freethinking Students of Color High School Essay Competition, tells us about the challenges of being a minority within a minority in a highly religious state. Then we talk with a former preacher who is now the president of The Clergy Project, Drew Bekius. His new book, which narrates his exodus from the evangelical pulpit, is The Rise and Fall of Faith: A God-to-Godless Story for Christians and Atheists.
Cardinal George Pell of Australia, highest-ranking Vatican official (whom Dan Barker has debated) is once again accused of sexual misconduct with minors. After dissecting the fallout from the bad Supreme Court Trinity Lutheran decision, we talk with FFRF attorney Ryan Jayne about his efforts to “Educate Congress” lobbying (about vouchers and the Johnson Amendment) with FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott in Washington, DC. Then we talk with Stanford neurobiologist and primatologist Robert Sapolsky about his epic new book Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst.
FFRF Victory! Staff attorney Madeline Ziegler joins us to talk about our recent victory in federal court removing a 34-foot-tall Christian cross from a city park in Pensacola, Florida, a decision that has upset prominent evangelicals like Franklin Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bill Donohue and Marco Rubio. After hearing Lena Horne’s performance of the irreverent Yip Harburg song “Ain’t It The Truth,” we talk with Pulitzer-Prize winning author Frances Fitzgerald about her new book, The Evangelicals: The Struggle To Shape America.
After honoring “Champions of the First Amendment” Roy Torcaso (1961 Torcaso vs. Watkins) and Ed and Ellery Schempp (1963 Abington vs. Schempp), we talk about atheist rock climber Alex Honnold, who this month made history by ascending Yosemite’s El Capitan free-style with no rope. We hear Roy Zimmerman’s hilarious song “Creation Science 101,” and then talk about the 1925 Scopes Trial with historian Andrew Kersten, author of the book Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast.
