Scopes Trial Centennial Conference
July 18 – 20, 2025 (Friday – Sunday)
The Chattanoogan Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton
1201 Broad Street
Chattanooga, TN 37402
The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Center for Inquiry will host a celebratory conference in July to mark the centenary of a milestone trial in U.S. history.
The Scopes Trial was a landmark legal case that pitted biblical literalism against evolutionary science and argued whether American schools would be places of science education or religious indoctrination. The special event to mark its 100 years will be held Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, at the Chattanoogan Hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn. It will explore the trial’s history and its lasting impact on science, education and the law. Attendees will hear from renowned speakers from the fields of evolutionary biology, law and history, and will have the opportunity to visit the site of the famous trial, the historic Rhea County Court House in Dayton, Tenn., as well as the statue of Clarence Darrow created by Zenos Frudakis and installed by FFRF several years ago.
The Chattanoogan ballroom capacity is limited, so only 250 seats are available. Please register right away to avoid disappointment.
The Scopes Trial Centennial conference will feature talks by Judge John Edward Jones III, who presided over the landmark 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case in which teaching “intelligent design” in public school science classes was ruled unconstitutional; actor John de Lancie, who will present live and on stage his acclaimed audio play “The Dover Intelligent Design Trial”; and author Brenda Wineapple, whose recent book “Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy and the Trial that Riveted a Nation” offers a magnificent historical exploration of the Scopes Trial.
Edward Larson, who wrote the 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion,” will be presented with the “Clarence Darrow Award,” and Judge Jones will receive the “Defender of the Constitution Award.”
Additional featured speakers include Richard Katskee of Duke’s Appellate Litigation Clinic and former vice president and legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who helped argue against intelligent design in the Dover case; Katherine Stewart, award-winning journalist and author who has covered religious nationalism for over 15 years; Bertha Vazquez, the award-winning science educator who heads the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES); Susan Jacoby, New York Times best-selling author and secularist; and Chris Cameron, history professor and author of “Black Freethinkers.” The marvelously funny Leighann Lord will entertain and also emcee the event. Other entertainment will include internationally known jazz singer Tahira Clayton singing popular songs from 1925, accompanied on the piano by FFRF Co-President Dan Barker.
In a CFI-only hosted event, which is tentatively scheduled to be held separately on Sunday morning, which all conference-goers are invited to attend, famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins will present the eponymous Richard Dawkins Award on behalf of the Center for Inquiry to Columbia University linguistics Professor and New York Times columnist John McWhorter. The two will engage in an on-stage conversation.
Full event details, speaker information and a link to register can be found at: ffrf.org/scopes-con
Current members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Center for Inquiry will be able to register during an exclusive preview that begins on Thursday, Jan. 9, and runs through Sunday, Jan. 12. Online registration for the general public will open on Monday, Jan. 13, at 9 a.m. EST.
Again, there are only 250 seats available for what is certain to be one of the best conferences of the year!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national association of 40,000 members whose purpose is to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
The Center for Inquiry strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Our vision is a world where people value evidence and critical thinking, where superstition and prejudice subside, and where science and compassion guide public policy.
