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.
An Indian version of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is getting a lot of attention lately. That’s because last Sunday marked the first ever gathering in honor of Dinkan, an old cartoon character popular in Kerala, India. And who is Dinkan? He’s a Mighty Mouse ripoff who doubles as the deity of a parody religion: Read more
The ironically named Constitution Park in Shelton, Connecticut is at the center of a lawsuit involving the First Amendment. Since 2012, the American Legion (a faith-based veterans group) has requested to put up a display in the park depicting “heralding angels” from the Nativity story. There’s no formal display policy for the park, other than the Mayor approves displays. But we all know how this works. When you open the door to religious displays on government property, non-religious displays must be allowed there as well. So last year, when atheist Jerome Bloom asked permission to put up a banner similar to the one below, which says there are no angels, he was surprised to find out it was denied. Read more
A few years ago, I had a brief obsession with Patrick Greene. He’s an atheist from Texas who alienated many in our own community, got help from Christians when he needed eye surgery, ignored the help given to him by atheists, told the Christian media that he had converted to Christianity, and then deconverted back. Besides constantly flip-flopping on faith for reasons that have nothing to do with reason, he was known for filing a lot of lawsuits, many of which were frivolous. For example, he filed a lawsuit against Ray Comfort for selling a bumper sticker that said April Fool’s Day should be called “National Atheist’s Day.” You know things are bad when atheists have to defend Ray Comfort’s freedom of speech. His latest lawsuit — he’s back in the news now — was over a 19-story-tall cross in Corpus Christi. The groundbreaking ceremony for the attraction took place in early February and some local government members were on hand for it: Read more