Friendly Atheist Podcast

Lucien Greaves is the spokesperson for The Satanic Temple. You know his organization because they've been very active recently regarding church/state separation issues. In Oklahoma, where there was a Ten Commandments monument near the Capitol building, Greaves' group requested putting up a statue of Baphomet… leading to all sorts of chaos. They've also tried to put up a Satanic display in the Florida Capitol building. And, my favorite, after a Florida school district allowed an outside group to do a Bible giveaway for students, they requested to distribute a Satanic coloring book… which may lead to an end to outside book distributions for good in that district. We spoke with Lucien about how he doesn't actually believe in Satan, what his group's relationship is like with other Satanic groups, and why they conducted a Pink Mass over the grave of Fred Phelps' mother. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies – yes, secular studies – at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he lives with his wife and three children. He is the author of several books about atheism, including Society Without God and Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion. Next week, he'll be releasing a book called Living the Secular Life. We spoke with Phil about whether the rise of the "Unaffiliated" has hit its peak, why more atheists have come out of the closet over the past decade, and why that demographic shift is good for America. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jeff Lewis is a board member of the Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE). ICHE is a group that promotes faith-based home-schooling and provides a variety of resources to Christian parents who want to do that. He's an attorney who specializes in topics including estate planning and guardianship issues. He and his wife have five children, all of whom have been home-schooled. We asked him to join us to give us an insight into a world we know little about, not to debate him on aspects of homeschooling. Still, the conversation will likely infuriate some listeners (you've been warned). We spoke with Jeff about whether homeschooling should be regulated by the state, why public schools are a problem for some Christians, and what to do about kids who fall through the cracks. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our guest is a college football player from one of the top Division 1 programs in the country. He's not just a guy on the bench; he himself is one of the top players in the country for his position. At his request, we're maintaining his anonymity because he deserves to be recognized for his talent and not his atheism, and we don't want to ruin that for him. Rest assured, though, we know his real name. We've verified that he is who he says he is. We wanted to talk to him about faith, football, and his future. For the sake of this interview, we're going to call him "Patrick." We spoke with Patrick about how he became an atheist, what it's like being an atheist on a mostly religious team, and what those of us on the outside don't know about college football. (Image via Shutterstock) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The new Left Behind movie, starring Nicolas Cage, is out -- and Jessica and Hemant decided to go see it... so you don't have to. After several days of keeping their thoughts to themselves, they finally discussed the movie with the microphones on. By the way, the picture you're seeing is Jessica in the theater. By herself. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Steve Wells is the author of the amazing Skeptics Annotated Bible, which documents all the contradictions and horrible things the Bible says. It's one of the most useful websites for atheists I have ever seen and you can check it out at skepticsannotatedbible.com. The print version of the book is a must-have. Wells is also the author of Drunk with Blood, which documents all of God's killings in the Bible. His newest book is called Strange Flesh, and it's about how the Bible is used to justify anti-gay bigotry or, depending on who you talk to, support LGBT rights. We spoke with Steve about his time in seminary, how one documents the number of deaths during an imaginary flood, and how Christian LGBT-rights advocate Matthew Vines gets it wrong. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Elizabeth Cavell graduated from Tulane University Law School in 2009 and worked for a while as a deputy public defender in southern Colorado. She currently works as a staff attorney with the Freedom From Religion Foundation. We spoke with Liz about which kind of complaints are the most numerous at FFRF, how persecution has become a way to protect privilege, and whether she ever speaks with her cultural counterparts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Monica Snyder is a representative from the group Secular Pro-Life, a group that seeks to unite pro-lifers, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. She has worked with the group since its inception in 2009. We spoke with Monica about where she fits in among both the pro-life and secular worlds, how she was rejected from volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center because of her beliefs, and why merely focusing on contraception access may not be a viable strategy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Juhem Navarro-Rivera is a research associate at the Public Religion Research Institute. PRRI publishes some of the most important and credible surveys when it comes to tracking religious demographics in the United States. Before joining PRRI, Juhem was a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, where he served as the lead analyst for many studies, including the landmark American Religious Identification Survey. He also taught political science and Latino Studies at the Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. We spoke with him about how PRRI collects its data, whether the results themselves can draw criticism, and how to grow the diversity within the atheist movement. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jessica spoke with Vandy Beth Glenn, Beth Ann Erickson, and Rebecca Bradley from the Skeptic Ink network about blogging in the skeptic/atheist community and their favorite posts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.