Making Humanism Relevant to African Americans

Gilbert Holmes is a long time board member and now Executive Director of ACLU of Indiana. He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, University of Southern California, and the Indiana University School of Law. He has had a distinguished career in both government and the private sector including Commissioner, Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and President/CEO of Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo).

Desmond Wood was baptized as a Lutheran but drifted away from the church as he matured. He converted to Islam in 2000. During this time, he traveled to the Middle East and studied Arabic. In 2005, he began to hang out and study with an esoteric group in Indianapolois. After a year with them, he began to study diverse subjects on his own and discovered Center for Inquiry Indiana. He is a serious student of philosophy and religion as well as studying the art of classical music and jazz on the classical guitar.

Jamila Bey is a journalist and comedian living in Washington, DC. Born to a Southern Baptist convert to Catholicism and a non-practicing Black Muslim, Jamila has formally renounced her "confused" belief in the supernatural and is now an out and proud Atheist. Jamila began her career covering government in her hometown of Pittsburgh and moved to DC where she was an editor for four years at National Public Radio. She's been a writer for hire for the better part of the last decade and is devoted to spreading the gospel of Logic, Reason, and Science to all those who may hear. Check out her article, "Black Women Who Use the "A" Word

Jamila Bey is a journalist and comedian living in Washington, DC. Born to a Southern Baptist convert to Catholicism and a non-practicing Black Muslim, Jamila has formally renounced her "confused" belief in the supernatural and is now an out and proud Atheist. Jamila began her career covering government in her hometown of Pittsburgh and moved to DC where she was an editor for four years at National Public Radio. She's been a writer for hire for the better part of the last decade and is devoted to spreading the gospel of Logic, Reason, and Science to all those who may hear. Check out her article, "Black Women Who Use the "A" Word."

Eric Workman sued Greenwood IN High School to prevent school-sactioned prayer at the graduation ceremony. Introduced by Reba Boyd Wooden, Executive Director of CFI Indiana.

Secularism and death.

CFI Indiana celebrates the National Day of Reason with readings from freethinking authors.

Eddie Tabash is a Constitutional Lawyer, a member of CFI Transnational Board of Directors, National Legal Committee for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and First Amendment Committee of ACLU of Southern California.  His most comprehensive treatment of the separation of Church and State is the brief he filed in 2007 for CFI in the same sex marriage case before the California Supreme Court.

Darwin Day, Science denial.

CFI News and programming. Top science stories.

HASTI www.hasti.org

Toni Van Pelt - CFI Office of Public Policy.

Toni joins us to talk about Charitable Choice and the work of CFI DC.

Author Nica Lalli - "Nothing - Something to believe in"

( Note: We apologize for noise in the recording due to technical difficulties.)

Interview with Susan Sackett  who was personal executive assistant to Gene Roddenberry, creator of the television legend Star Trek, for over 17 years until his death in October 1991. She also served as his production assistant on the first Star Trek film and worked closely with him on the next five Star Trek movies. In addition, she served as Production Associate during the first five seasons of the television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Susan and her writing partner, Fred Bronson, sold several stories and a teleplay to that series, including the popular episodes "Ménage à Troi" and "The Game."

She wrote three books about Star Trek: Letters to Star Trek, Star Trek Speaks! (with co-authors Fred and Stan Goldstein) and The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with co-author Gene Roddenberry.

Another book, Star Trek: The First 25 Years, co-authored with Gene Roddenberry, was not published but became the basis of the 1994 book, Star Trek: Where No One Has Gone Before: A History in Pictures, by J. M. Dillard. Susan's Star Trek memoir, Inside Trek, was published  in 2002.

It was Gene Roddenberry who introduced Susan to humanism. She has been president of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix  since 2000. The chapter received "Chapter of the Year" from the American Humanist Association for 2001.

Interview: Author John Loftus: "Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity"

Sean O'Brien is our special guest host.