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.
In a legislature that seems so far removed from what we have in the United States, the Christian political parties in the Netherlands are really upset that the people who don’t share their faith outnumber them — and are working hard to promote church/state separation. That means undoing a lot of Christian privilege that has built up over the years: Read more
One of the storylines from this election that will last far beyond this campaign season, I hope, is how many candidates said that God wanted them to run for President… only to dash their hopes months later. God loves playing practical jokes with politicians, I guess. The current Republican frontrunner Donald Trump claims to be a man of God, though his actions don’t show it at all. He can’t even pretend to be a practicing Christian without screwing up. That’s why it seems like a good time to revisit all the candidates who directly or indirectly said God had a hand in convincing them to run for office. Nearly all of them have since dropped out of the race. Read more
Put away your pitchforks for a minute and hear me out. We’ve all seen it happen and maybe even participated in the diatribe ourselves. A convicted sex offender is sentenced and the shouts of “Monster!” and “You deserve what you’ll get in prison!” (and worse) erupt from our networks. Just yesterday, we learned that Jared Fogle (former spokesman for Subway) was assaulted in prison, where he’s serving time for possessing child pornography and engaging in “commercial sex acts with underage minors,” as the government filing put it. My friends (theists and atheists alike, incidentally) gleefully cheered the “justice” and “karma being served.” Twitter, as you might expect, was also ablaze in celebration: Read more