Village atheists, with Leigh Eric Schmidt [MIPodcast #59]

Maxwell Institute Podcast

Christianity, Education, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2017

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's the Maxwell Institute podcast.
0:04.0	I'm Blair Hodges.
0:06.0	Are you familiar with the new atheists?
0:08.0	The late Christopher Hitchens wrote biting books about religion as poison.
0:12.0	Richard Dawkins is championed as sort of
0:15.0	Scientism as a replacement for faith, and people like Bill Maher spend some time each evening poking fun at the pious.
0:24.3	Despite their unofficial title, new atheists, they're actually not all that new.
0:30.1	Award-winning historian Lee Eric Schmidt sees them as ancestors of village atheists of days gone by.
0:36.2	Atheists in American history have often been at the forefront of debates about the necessity of religion for healthy social life.
0:39.3	They've fought legal battles over free speech and minority rights.
0:43.3	And in this episode, you'll hear Schmidt tell the stories of four controversial folks who call themselves free thinkers.
0:45.6	Stories of integrity and courage, humor, and hypocrisy.
0:49.3	We're talking about Lee Eric Schmidt's new book, Village Atheists,
0:52.7	How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way in a
0:55.0	Godly Nation. In this episode of the Maxwell Institute podcast, send questions and comments
0:59.9	about this and other episodes to MI podcast at BYU.edu. And don't forget to rate and review
1:05.5	the show in iTunes. Lee Eric Schmidt is here. He joins us from the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.
1:17.6	And today we're talking about his new book, Village Atheists, how America's unbelievers made their way in a godly nation.
1:24.7	Lee, thank you so much for being on the show today.
1:26.8	Thank you for having me. I wanted to
1:28.7	begin with the way that your book begins. You talk about the Boy Scouts of America, of all things,
1:33.0	right off the top. And in 2015, the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on gay scout leaders,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Maxwell Institute Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Maxwell Institute Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.