The Friendly Atheist Podcast

Dr. Elizabeth Drescher is a professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University and the author, most recently, of Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones.

We spoke with her about what atheist “spirituality” really means, the problem with the language we use to talk about faith, and how religion is no longer being passed down generation after generation.

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This episode was sponsored by Foundation Marketing, which offers all-encompassing solutions backed by 20 years’ experience. This includes professional web design, graphic design, printing, and online marketing solutions. If you let them know you were sent by the Friendly Atheist Podcast, you’ll get 10% off any sale. They’re also donating 20% of all sales driven by this podcast to the Clergy Project and Foundation Beyond Belief.

Notes:

We mentioned the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, which you can read right here.

At the American Humanist Association conference in Chicago recently, we had a chance to speak with a number of incredible people and we’ll be posting those interviews over the next few weeks.

Today, we’re posting our conversation with Margaret Downey, a life-long atheist activist and member of the Reason Rally Coalition Board of Directors. She is also founder and President of the Freethought Society and a former President of Atheist Alliance International.

We spoke with her about what to expect at this weekend’s Rally, how she plans to gauge its success, and what she wants people to take away from the event.

Chrystine Trooien is an eco-conscious, secular, vegan mother based out of Hawaii. About a year ago, she launched a Kickstarter campaign for a book called Christian Mythology for Kids. It’s essentially a book that explains the stories of the Bible as just that: Stories. They don’t disparage religion, and they don’t pretend any of it is real, either. They read just like Greek mythology — with beautiful illustrations by artist Christopher Zakrzewski to boot. It’s a wonderful way to introduce your children to these characters without indoctrinating them in the faith.

We spoke with Chrystine about why it’s important to teach kids these stories objectively, how she handled stories with no redeeming message, and whether she’ll continue the series with other religions.

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This episode was sponsored by Foundation Marketing, which offers all-encompassing solutions backed by 20 years’ experience. This includes professional web design, graphic design, printing, and online marketing solutions. If you let them know you were sent by the Friendly Atheist Podcast, you’ll get 10% off any sale. They’re also donating 20% of all sales driven by this podcast to the Clergy Project and Foundation Beyond Belief.

Notes:

We mentioned a lawsuit involving Hawaiian schools offering illegally sweet deals to churches who wanted to rent them out. You can read more about that lawsuit here.

Dr. Wynne LeGrow spent two years as a physician in the Army, where he was promoted to major, and then nearly three decades in private practice. For most of his career, he practiced internal medicine.

In 2010, after he retired, he decided to run for Congress from Virginia’s 4th District, which was represented then (and now) by Republican Randy Forbes. Forbes is so conservative, he founded the Congressional Prayer Caucus. LeGrow, on the other hand, ran as an open atheist. He lost the race, but wrote about the experience in his new book Last Leper in the Colony: An Atheist Runs for Congress in the Bible Belt.

We spoke to him about what it was like being an atheist in the 1960s/1970s, the surprising politician who inspired him to run for office, and the advice he would give atheists running for office in the future.