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.
The other day, I got to spend an afternoon talking with the (Christian) trio of Phil Vischer (of VeggieTales fame), Skye Jethani, and Christian Taylor. We talked about Ken Ham, atheist/Christian stereotypes, and whether atheism counts as a religion. Good times! They were a blast to chat with. And it was all put on video for your viewing pleasure. Read more
I don’t care that televangelist Jim Bakker has become a constant presence on this blog. He’s found a new way to market his Giant Buckets O’ Food, and I’ll be damned if I don’t pass along this brilliant idea. Forget the stuff inside, he says. You can just reassemble the buckets to make furniture! Because no one will ever notice during the apocalypse… Read more
The story of the Kountze High School cheerleaders began in 2012 and still hasn’t ended, even though the students in question have almost all graduated. If you need a quick refresher, these are the Texas cheerleaders who held up banners with Bible verses on them during football games. Critics argued that, since the cheerleaders were representing the school, they couldn’t promote religion while on the field. I won’t rehash everything since it’s so convoluted, but you can read a longer version right here. In any case, Emma Green, writing for The Atlantic, caught up with some of the cheerleaders to get their impressions of the case years later and to show how “religious freedom” battles aren’t limited to LGBT issues: Read more