Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
Liberty Counsel, the Christian group that flips out when anyone says “Happy Holidays,” just released the trailer for its first film. (Yep, they make films now.) It features a washed-up actor from the ’80s, a plotline with evil secular educators, and angsty Christian youth ready to reclaim their faith. In other words, this is exactly like every Christian movie you’ve (n)ever seen… I guess Kirk Cameron was unavailable, though, so they got Erik Estrada: The film is called “Uncommon”: Read more
Today, the Center For Inquiry launched an ad campaign in New York City’s Times Square reminding everyone that atheists, too, can take part in this season of gratitude and giving. The 15-second (silent) video ad includes the message: “Millions show love and gratitude without God” and features a mother hugging her daughter. Read more
In January of 2011, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) went on Real Time with Bill Maher and proudly admitted he didn’t accept evolution or climate change: Based on what he said, he clearly didn’t understand evolution or climate change, either. (“I believe I came from God, not from a monkey.”) I bring this up now because Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski discovered a change in Kingston’s Wikipedia page made over the summer. The section stating that Kingston was an evolution and climate change denier was scrubbed: Read more
A new challenge to the Affordable Care Act is the latest sign that some religious people, with all the power and privilege they already have, just want more. When the ACA went into effect, it exempted religious organizations from having to fulfill the contraceptive requirement. In other words, if you were a pastor of a large church, you didn’t have to provide your employees with birth control if it went against your religious “conscience.” The ACA did not offer the same exemption to public, for-profit companies owned by religious people — as well it shouldn’t have. Just because the owner of a huge company like, say, Hobby Lobby, is an evangelical Christian, should he be able to withhold contraception from those who work for him? Right now, the answer is no. But yesterday, the Supreme Court announced it would hear challenges to that rule. Read more
This is what really happened at Fayette High School in Missouri: Gwen Pope, a math teacher at the school, led Christian devotional prayers in her classroom every Friday morning. These prayer sessions were announced over the loudspeaker for students, in effect, encouraging them to attend. Both of those things are illegal. There’s more: The prayer sessions weren’t part of an extracurricular club. Pope’s husband Michael would attend the meetings. Furthermore, she told her math students that “God will punish them if they are not good” and had religious literature on her desk during the school day: Read more