This course examines American secularism, humanism, freethought, and atheism from the Enlightenment forward to the present. Topics to be explored include: the tensions between secular and Christian conceptions of the nation’s founding, blasphemy and sacrilege, women’s rights, the civil liberties of atheists and nontheists, the relationship between science and religion, the battles over religion in the public schools, nonreligious child-rearing, and the politics of unbelief on both the left and right.
Course history:
Fall 2017: taught by Professor Leigh Schmidt Fall 2023: taught by Professor Leigh Schmidt
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There were very interesting readings, and the professor is very enthusiastic and passionate about the topics in the course. I had lots of room for insight and growth.
— Fall 2023
Though the focus is on atheism, the course gives a sense of America's general religious history, as we learned about the many religious ideologies that atheists have had to combat throughout American history.
