The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s YouTube series “Secular Spotlight” enlightens the audience in its latest episode about a forgotten champion of freethought.
FFRF’s Dan Barker and Scott Knickelbine explore the remarkable legacy of Robert G. Ingersoll with Vanderbilt Professor Paul Stob, examining the 19th-century orator’s advocacy for freethought, church-state separation, science, morality and individual liberty. They also discuss why Ingersoll became one of America’s most popular lecturers — and why his ideas remain relevant today.
“Ingersoll knows that what he’s doing is not just speaking to people who are part of a freethought movement, but he’s talking to religious believers, he’s talking to people who Saturday night will go to the Ingersoll lecture, and Sunday morning they’re going to go to church,” Stob explains. “He has less to do with assaulting people’s individual religious beliefs, and a lot more to do with sort of critiquing and assaulting the power structures that define modern life, including the religious power structure.”
You can catch this episode of “Secular Spotlight” on FFRF’s YouTube channel, as well as by watching on your smart TV after downloading FFRF’s free app, Freethought TV, which also highlights FFRF’s other video programming. Our previous episodes include a discussion with Uncloseted Media editor-in-chief Spencer Macnaughton about his revealing interview with Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, and psychologist and author Mary L. Trump, who provides a firsthand account of a recent gathering of nonreligious congressional members. Make sure you’re subscribed to FFRF’s YouTube channel for all the latest updates!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members across the country, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
