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.
Did you know violent crime in Las Vegas has dropped by 75%? (Since when? I don’t know. From what to what? Who cares.) More important, did you know this is all happening because of Jesus?! (How do we know that? We don’t.) That’s the claim made by Christian pseudo-historian David Barton on “The Patriot and The Preacher” radio show recently: Read more
Donald J. Trump is a lot of things. He’s a real estate magnate, a billionaire investor, a reality television star, and, this election cycle, he’s convinced millions of evangelical Americans he’s a fundamentalist Christian deserving of one of the most important voting blocs for the Republican Party. Trump wasn’t expected to be the most popular candidate for strong Christians, whom pundits and strategists thought would prefer Senator Ted Cruz, a Southern Baptist who often emphasizes religion in his speeches. But Trump proved more influential among Christians than anticipated by securing important praise from Christian leaders and then making a strong showing on Super Tuesday, when he won a number of contests, including those in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia — states with large Christian populations. We know Trump is a Presbyterian, and that he has praised his religion and the Bible in the past, but what does he really know about his faith? And why are many conservative voters, who often find religion important when selecting a candidate, eager to accept his belief as genuine? Read more
At a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina this morning, his opening act, pastor and televangelist Mark Burns, told the crowd that Bernie Sanders “doesn’t believe in God,” adding, “Bernie gotta get saved. He gotta meet Jesus… He gotta have a ‘coming to Jesus’ meeting.” Bernie Sanders, of course, is Jewish. He has never said he’s an atheist. You can see the comments at the 5:28 mark in the video below: Read more
If you wanted to win an award for, say, making movies, there are a couple of ways to do it. You could produce a quality film, send it to the Academy Awards people, and hope the voters recognize your submission. But that’s a lot of work. It requires making a good movie, for one. You might have to lobby voters to support your film. And even then, you might lose. The other option is just buying yourself an award, engraving your name on it, and telling everyone you won something special! I mean, who’s really going to double-check how legitimate it is? With that in mind, you should all give a huge round of applause to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They just won a couple of Telly Awards! Read more