The period from, roughly, 1875 to 1914 represents the high-water mark of freethought as an influential movement in American society. - Susan Jacoby

There is also a connection between the antievolution campaign and the lamentable state of American scientific literacy.

Throughout their presidencies, Jefferson and his successor, Madison, never ceased to uphold the separation of church and state they had conceived as a model for the new nation.

It is precisely because secularists do understand the power of religion, and the possibility that any intensely felt drive for righteousness may overwhelm dissenters in its path, that they insist on the fundamental importance of separation between church and state.