Derek C. Araujo
Center for Inquiry — New York, NY
Derek Araujo is Vice President and General Counsel of the Center for Inquiry. In addition to directing CFI's Legal Department, he assists the Center for Inquiry's First Amendment Task Force and its Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. with litigation, policy analysis, and other projects.
Mr. Araujo graduated from Harvard College in 1999 with a baccalaureate degree in physics, magna cum laude. During his college years, he was the founding President of the Campus Freethought Alliance (now CFI On Campus) and of the Harvard Secular Society. In 2004 he earned a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Mr. Araujo is one of the most articulate advocates of church-state separation in the United States. Equipped to discuss issues ranging from the necessity of separating religion from government to the inherent value of scientific literacy, Mr. Araujo would prove a competent opponent to those speaking on behalf of the benefits of "intelligent design" creationist education, religion's influence on public policy, and a myriad of other topics. In addition, Mr. Araujo has been an effective promoter of community organizing in defense of science and secularism.
Listen below as Derek discusses the influence of religion on politics and society:
