The "Trial of the Century"

Freethought Radio

Freedom From Religion Foundation

Religion, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 577 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We report on state/church victories and challenges in Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas, Morocco, Minnesota and Florida. Then, we hear Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ed Larson (Summer for the Gods) tell us the story of the 1925 Scopes Trial, the "Trial of the Century," pitting science against religion in Dayton, Tenn., 100 years ago.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Free Thought Radio with co-host Stan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Irreverent Views, News, Music, and Interviews.
0:19.0	Imagine there's no heaven.
0:21.6	It's easy if you try.
0:27.6	No hell below us, above us only sky.
0:44.3	Imagine all the people living for today.
0:58.3	Welcome to Free Thought Radio.
1:02.5	I'm Annie Laurie Gaylor, and in science, I trust.
1:12.5	The news that we have this week will clearly show the trouble with the United States having a motto that says in God we trust instead of one that says in science we trust. And I'm Dan Barker. Annie Laurie and I are co-presidents of the Freedom
1:20.4	from Religion Foundation. This is the September 4th, 2025 episode of Free Thought Radio, recording in the Stephen Ool-friendly Atheist
1:30.2	studio in Freethought Hall, which is the national headquarters of FFRF in Madison, Wisconsin.
1:38.0	Free Thought Radio is the weekly production of FFRF, the Freedom from Religion Foundation,
1:43.7	and you can check us out at fFRF Religion Foundation, and you can check us out at ffruf.org, and you can join
1:48.1	us at ffrf.org and become one of our more than 42,000 current paid members of our
1:55.8	nonprofit that works so hard to uphold the constitutional principle of separation between state and church
2:03.5	and to also represent the views of the growing number of the Americans, one-third of us,
2:10.3	who have no religion, many of us, atheists, and agnostics.
2:15.2	This week, science has taken a lot of big hits from the federal government.
2:21.0	We'll be talking more about that in a moment, but we're also going to look back in the second
2:25.9	half of today's show to the legacy of the most famous trial about science, the Scopes trial, which was held 100 years ago. We'll hear from
2:39.5	Pulitzer Prize winning historian Ed Larson. We'll tell us about the legacy of the 1925 trial of the
2:48.5	century. And before that, we'll report on some very good state church news.
2:54.6	The music this week comes from English musician and songwriter Roger Waters.
	...

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