Podcasts about unbelievers made their way

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth century—were also hailed for their gutsy dissent from stultifying pieties and for posing a necessary secularist challenge to majoritarian entanglements of church and state. In Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press, 2016),  Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt explores the complex cultural terrain that unbelievers have long had to navigate in their fight to secure equal rights and liberties in American public life. Examining the multilayered world of social exclusion, legal jeopardy, yet also civic acceptance in which American atheists and secularists lived, Schmidt shows how it was only in the middle decades of the twentieth century that nonbelievers attained a measure of legal vindication, yet even then they have often found themselves marginalized on the edges of a God-trusting, Bible-believing nation. Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton in 1987. He has appeared on a number of NPR programs and other radio shows to discuss his many books and he also comments on current issues in American religion and culture, for such notable media outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, London Times, Boston Globe, and a number of other recognizable titles. Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth century—were also hailed for their gutsy dissent from stultifying pieties and for posing a necessary secularist challenge to majoritarian entanglements of church and state. In Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press, 2016),  Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt explores the complex cultural terrain that unbelievers have long had to navigate in their fight to secure equal rights and liberties in American public life. Examining the multilayered world of social exclusion, legal jeopardy, yet also civic acceptance in which American atheists and secularists lived, Schmidt shows how it was only in the middle decades of the twentieth century that nonbelievers attained a measure of legal vindication, yet even then they have often found themselves marginalized on the edges of a God-trusting, Bible-believing nation. Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton in 1987. He has appeared on a number of NPR programs and other radio shows to discuss his many books and he also comments on current issues in American religion and culture, for such notable media outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, London Times, Boston Globe, and a number of other recognizable titles. Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth century—were also hailed for their gutsy dissent from stultifying pieties and for posing a necessary secularist challenge to majoritarian entanglements of church and state. In Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press, 2016),  Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt explores the complex cultural terrain that unbelievers have long had to navigate in their fight to secure equal rights and liberties in American public life. Examining the multilayered world of social exclusion, legal jeopardy, yet also civic acceptance in which American atheists and secularists lived, Schmidt shows how it was only in the middle decades of the twentieth century that nonbelievers attained a measure of legal vindication, yet even then they have often found themselves marginalized on the edges of a God-trusting, Bible-believing nation. Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton in 1987. He has appeared on a number of NPR programs and other radio shows to discuss his many books and he also comments on current issues in American religion and culture, for such notable media outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, London Times, Boston Globe, and a number of other recognizable titles. Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth century—were also hailed for their gutsy dissent from stultifying pieties and for posing a necessary secularist challenge to majoritarian entanglements of church and state. In Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press, 2016),  Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt explores the complex cultural terrain that unbelievers have long had to navigate in their fight to secure equal rights and liberties in American public life. Examining the multilayered world of social exclusion, legal jeopardy, yet also civic acceptance in which American atheists and secularists lived, Schmidt shows how it was only in the middle decades of the twentieth century that nonbelievers attained a measure of legal vindication, yet even then they have often found themselves marginalized on the edges of a God-trusting, Bible-believing nation. Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton in 1987. He has appeared on a number of NPR programs and other radio shows to discuss his many books and he also comments on current issues in American religion and culture, for such notable media outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, London Times, Boston Globe, and a number of other recognizable titles. Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth century—were also hailed for their gutsy dissent from stultifying pieties and for posing a necessary secularist challenge to majoritarian entanglements of church and state. In Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press, 2016),  Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt explores the complex cultural terrain that unbelievers have long had to navigate in their fight to secure equal rights and liberties in American public life. Examining the multilayered world of social exclusion, legal jeopardy, yet also civic acceptance in which American atheists and secularists lived, Schmidt shows how it was only in the middle decades of the twentieth century that nonbelievers attained a measure of legal vindication, yet even then they have often found themselves marginalized on the edges of a God-trusting, Bible-believing nation. Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton in 1987. He has appeared on a number of NPR programs and other radio shows to discuss his many books and he also comments on current issues in American religion and culture, for such notable media outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, London Times, Boston Globe, and a number of other recognizable titles. Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth century—were also hailed for their gutsy dissent from stultifying pieties and for posing a necessary secularist challenge to majoritarian entanglements of church and state. In Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press, 2016),  Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt explores the complex cultural terrain that unbelievers have long had to navigate in their fight to secure equal rights and liberties in American public life. Examining the multilayered world of social exclusion, legal jeopardy, yet also civic acceptance in which American atheists and secularists lived, Schmidt shows how it was only in the middle decades of the twentieth century that nonbelievers attained a measure of legal vindication, yet even then they have often found themselves marginalized on the edges of a God-trusting, Bible-believing nation. Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and religious studies from the University of California, Riverside, in 1983 and his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton in 1987. He has appeared on a number of NPR programs and other radio shows to discuss his many books and he also comments on current issues in American religion and culture, for such notable media outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, London Times, Boston Globe, and a number of other recognizable titles. Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A much-maligned minority throughout American history, atheists have been cast as a threat to the nation’s moral fabric, barred from holding public office, and branded as irreligious misfits in a nation chosen by God. Yet, village atheists—as these godless freethinkers came to be known by the close of the nineteenth...

Are you familiar with the New Atheists? The late Christopher Hitchens wrote biting books about religion as “poison,” Richard Dawkins champions a sort of scientism as a replacement for faith, and people like Bill Maher spend time each evening poking fun at the pious. Despite their unofficial “New Atheist” title, they're perhaps not actually all that new. Award-winning historian Leigh Eric Schmidt sees them as ancestors of village atheists of days gone by. Atheists in American history have often been at the forefront of debates about the necessity of religion for healthy social life. They've fought legal battles over free speech and minority rights. In this episode, you'll hear Schmidt tell the stories of four controversial folks who called themselves freethinkers—stories of integrity and courage, humor and hypocrisy. We're talking about Leigh Eric Schmidt's new book Village Atheists: How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation. About the Guest Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is author of the highly acclaimed book Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment, among other titles. His latest is called Village Atheists: How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way In a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press). The post Village atheists, with Leigh Eric Schmidt [MIPodcast #59] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Today the United States is the most secular and irreligious it has ever been. According to  Pew Research, the percentage of Americans who identify as atheist, agnostic, or having no religion in particular is up to 23%, compared to the 16% it was in 2007. With a lack of religious affiliation becoming normalized, it’s hard to imagine what it was like for the nonreligious when God’s primacy was almost entirely unquestioned.    Point of Inquiry welcomes Leigh Eric Schmidt, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the new book, Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation. Schmidt gives a detailed account of what it was like to be secular in a society where God was considered to be the sole source of all morality. While some worked to prove that God was not essential to being a moral, upstanding citizen, others were more concerned with reforming the way the church affected public life. Schmidt explains that in the 1850’s, “liberal” was used interchangeably with “atheist.” While some atheists felt it was important to blend in with the rest of God-abiding society, others felt their views on everything — from marriage reform and gender equality to civil rights and free speech — were in direct conflict with the church, and they challenged its claims to moral authority.