Point of Inquiry

What happens when a professional atheist and skeptic addresses a classroom full of young earth creationists and fundamentalist Christians? For 20 years, CFI West executive Director Jim Underdown has been going to a Christian high school in Southern California to represent atheism and secular humanism in that school's comparative religion class. Here is one of those discussions.

Ann Druyan has had a stellar career bringing her creative talents to the world of science communication. From her time on the team that designed the messages on Voyager 1 & 2 (now outside our solar system), to her work on all three iterations of the  Cosmos  series, she has for millions of readers and viewers shed light on how our planet and universe operate. Ann chats with Jim about her life's wo...

The massively popular Telepathy Tapes podcast has generated nationwide interest in the idea that severely autistic kids may also possess the ability to read minds. The series, now two seasons in, also broadly attacks materialistic science and falls prey to an assortment of wacky beliefs that Skeptical Inquirer readers are well aware of. In this episode, Jim brings his paranormal testing experience...

When a woman finds herself under the heavy influence of an authority figure who is revered by her friends, her family, and even the very culture she was raised in, how does she escape when that figure begins to take advantage of her in unspeakable ways? Chanchal Garg is the author of  Unearthed: The Lies We Carry & The Truths They Bury , her story of transcending societal restraints to become succ...

Historically, of the three branches of government, the judiciary has been the final voice of reason when it came to guaranteeing fundamental freedoms like civil rights, marriage between consenting adults, and the autonomy over one's body. Unlike legislators and presidents, the court has been less subject to the whims of popular sentiment and more able to focus on the Constitution and justice. That...

In the past century, there have been a number of court cases where religious folks have attempted to inject their beliefs into the public schools. But two cases are more noteworthy than most, and bookend the long battle between science and creationism in the classroom. These two trials,  The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes , and   Kitzmiller v. The Dover Area School Board are important mi...

The Griffith Observatory is the most visited public observatory in the world, and a science icon that overlooks the Los Angeles basin. Since 1935, the facility has hosted astronauts, WWII pilots and celebrities, and continues to promote science and wonder in a world full of misinformation. In this episode, Jim chats with Griffith Observatory Director Dr. Ed Krupp, who has been at the helm of this...

A century and a half ago, one out of every five Americans lived on a farm. Today, it's closer to one out of every fifty, even though the population has increased more than tenfold. The industrial-scale farm and livestock business that we depend on today feeds hundreds of millions every day, but at what cost? In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Jim speaks with investigative journalist and author W...

The ancient Greeks had a profound influence not only on their own world, but also on what would become Western culture as a whole. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Jim chats with Evaggelos Villianatos, a Greek scholar who sheds an interesting light on how his ancestors helped shape the science, arts, language and governments of the modern world.

The art of cold reading has convinced millions of people that gimmicks like crystal balls, palm reading, tarot cards, and other alleged paranormal abilities are real. People walk away from astrologers, mediums, and psychics saying "there's no way he could have known that" or other exclamations of amazement. But are these skills really paranormal, or can they be explained by a series of techniques...

When a business owner, ex-marine, and retired peace office is questioned and later arrested for what appear to be bigoted reasons, there should be recourse in our system of justice to right such a wrong. But Steve Hill is having a hell of a time finding help with his well-documented struggles. Should the fact that he is a black man and a member of the Satanic Temple enter into whether he is treate...

Almost 30 percent of the U.S. population is religiously unaffiliated, but only a fraction of those so-called "Nones" identify as atheist or agnostic. Fewer still feel comfortable revealing to the people in their lives that they don't believe in God. Kate Cohen was one of those people. Though she had determined that God was a human-made fiction from a young age, the challenges of navigating social...

Members of Gen X and older grew up in an America in which being religious was the default and atheism was, as best, on the fringes. A lot has changed in the last couple of decades, and for many Millennials and members of Gen Z, being nonreligious is really no big deal. Folks in younger generations are accustomed to living among people of various religious and ethnic backgrounds, and as the percent...

In 2019, Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Scott Kennedy was working on a film about the years-long anti-vaxxer movement. Filming with top public health officials–including Tony Fauci–as well as rare interviews with anti-vaccine activists who were persuading parents by the millions to refuse vaccines for their children. And then COVID hit, and further fueled immunization fears that wou...

The U.S. Supreme Court -- that over sixty years ago ruled against state-led prayer in public schools --  has swung back the other way with a vengeance. The ultra-conservative majority on the current court has reversed 60 years of progress and put the rights of non-believers in jeopardy. In this episode, Jim Underdown speaks to Nick Little, former Director of CFI's Legal department, and Eddie Tabas...

The Nones are on the rise! When asked about their religious affiliation, year after year, more and more Americans are choosing "none of the above." The number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, which includes atheists and agnostics, has been rocketing up over the past couple of decades, and today these Nones make up about one-third of the American population. But they're not matching their rel...

Of the 535 Members of Congress, only one is an out-of-the-closet atheist. His name is  Jared Huffman, and he is a U.S. Representative from Northern California. He is also the co-chair (with Rep. Jamie Raskin) of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, a group all secular Americans should know about and support. In this episode, Jim Underdown chats with the congressman about a number of different iss...

What happens when a group of skeptics from across the globe keeps score of over twenty years of psychic predictions? Any guesses? In this episode of Point of Inquiry, host Jim Underdown speaks to Rob Palmer and Richard Saunders of the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project  about this ambitious effort to track the accuracy of those who claim to see the future. How did the prognosticators do?...

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California may be the world's premiere space exploration facility. From the earliest days of rocketry, JPL has been at the vanguard of designing and building rockets and spaceships. But the lab has a colorful history, and some of its founders broke the stereotypes of what a rocket scientist might be. Satanism? Friendships with L. Ron Hubbard? The Re...

"Many of us who are happy to live outside religion still suffer from a lack of things religion gives its members," writes historian and poet Jennifer Michael Hecht. "It seems to me the remedy to this suffering is a shift in the way we think about ritual and the poetry of our lives."   Hecht is our guest on this episode of Point of Inquiry. She's the author of books such as Doubt: A History, The Ha...