The latest episode of [i:7701542522]Point of Inquiry[/i:7701542522] features an interview with Susan Jacoby, the author of [u:7701542522]Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism[/u:7701542522], which is now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an Ïardent and insightful workÓ that Ïseeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity.Ó Named a notable nonfiction book by [i:7701542522]The Washington Post[/i:7701542522] and [i:7701542522]The Los Angeles Times[/i:7701542522], [u:7701542522]Freethinkers[/u:7701542522] was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the [i:7701542522]Times Literary Supplement[/i:7701542522] and [i:7701542522]The Guardian[/i:7701542522].

In this interview with DJ Grothe, Jacoby talks about the role that freethinkers played in American social justice movements, and discusses Robert Green Ingersoll.

Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know?, detailing facts about Robert Green Ingersoll and new data about nonbelievers from University of Akron, and Lauren Becker shares some thoughts on Darwin and Olver Sacks and what these scientists teach us about ourselves.

You can listen online at http://www.pointofinquiry.org or subscribe through iTunes or another "podcatcher."

Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry’s radio show and podcast, drawing on CFI’s relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features, and commentary focusing on CFI’s three research areas: pseudoscience and the paranormal, alternative medicine, and religion and secularism.

Past episodes include interviews with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Chris Mooney, Eugenie Scott, Max Maven, Ibn Warraq, Andrew Skolnick, Wallace Sampson, Paul Kurtz, and Joe Nickell and others.

Website: http://www.pointofinquiry.org
RSS feed: http://pointofinquiry.libsyn.com/rss

Susan Jacoby - America’s Freethought Heritage (March 17th)

The latest episode of Point of Inquiry features an interview with Susan Jacoby, the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, which is now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an “ardent and insightful work” that “seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity.” Named a notable nonfiction book by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.

In this interview with DJ Grothe, Jacoby talks about the role that freethinkers played in American social justice movements, and discusses Robert Green Ingersoll.

Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know?, detailing facts about Robert Green Ingersoll and new data about nonbelievers from University of Akron, and Lauren Becker shares some thoughts on Darwin and Olver Sacks and what these scientists teach us about ourselves.

You can listen online at http://www.pointofinquiry.org or subscribe through iTunes or another “podcatcher.”

Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry’s radio show and podcast, drawing on CFI’s relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features, and commentary focusing on CFI’s three research areas: pseudoscience and the paranormal, alternative medicine, and religion and secularism.

Past episodes include interviews with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Chris Mooney, Eugenie Scott, Max Maven, Ibn Warraq, Andrew Skolnick, Wallace Sampson, Paul Kurtz, and Joe Nickell and others.

Website: http://www.pointofinquiry.org
RSS feed: http://pointofinquiry.libsyn.com/rss

Susan Jacoby Rocks

I havent read her book but I would love to heard what she has to say about Canadian freethinkers too. Maybe we can have her do a book signing at Uni.

I had never heard of Robert Ingersoll before and it is outrageous that he seems to have been systematically written out of the history books.

We should have a Robert Ingersoll Rememberence Movement!

Great interview Mr Grothe. You should also include facts about belief in God in other countries too, since not only people from the USA listen to the show. I wonder if it is teh same statistics roughly for Canada.

Religious belief in Canada

This link connects to some tables and stats for religious identification in Canada:

http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/rel/contents.cfm

As for Ingersoll, public knowledge of him does seem “lost in the mists of time.”  But I don’t think he’s been necessarily written out of the history books either, even though he has been called the greatest orator of his time.  General history books focus on only so many political and civil rights leaders.  If he’d had a case go to the Supreme Court, or led a massive riot, or caused the passage of an amendment, then he might just be in there.  :wink:

Of course, there’s a bias in every history book, so maybe at some point someone will change the lens to one that focuses more on secularist contributions.

Speaking of bias, have you ever read a general high-school-level history book from the 1950s?  Wow.  The one I saw makes our current ones look like they were written by black feminist socialists, in comparison.  :D

By the way, the Council for Secular Humanism does maintain a Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum in Dresden, NY with many artifacts and snippets of recorded speech and the like.  It was mentioned in the episode’s “Did You Know”.  The website is below:

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=ingersoll&page=museum

Debbie

Freethinkers book

I just finished reading Susan’s book Freethinkers.  It was excellent, being filled with many good ideas and facts, and written very well.  I absolutely recommend it.

if you’re interested, there is a great robert ingersoll podcast available.

http://robertingersollpodcast.blogspot.com/