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.
For the second straight year, American Atheists has a presence at CPAC, the influential conference for right-wingers. Why bother? Because, as President Dave Silverman said last year, conservatism (with a small “c”) doesn’t have to be synonymous with Christianity, and there’s value in getting your unpopular views in front of a crowd that, by their own logic, ought to support the constitutional separation between church and state. Read more
Yesterday, I asked atheists who planned to vote for one of the Republicans in the race to explain their thinking. No debate or judgment from me. I just didn’t get how atheists — who take that word seriously — could vote for religious conservatives like Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Or Donald Trump, the media spectacle who offers no substance. Or even John Kasich, the so-called moderate, who has shown himself to be awful on social issues most atheists care about. I could understand atheists voting for a third party candidate… but these guys? What was their appeal? A lot of people responded and I’m listing excerpts (with minor edits) from their emails below. I’ve broken down the responses by candidate, but let me summarize their main arguments: 1) We think economic concerns and Second Amendment fears are more important than church/state separation issues. 2) Hillary Clinton is just awful. 3) We’re assuming Bernie Sanders will lose the primary. (If he wins, we’d support him.) With that in mind, here’s a glimpse at why at least some atheists are supporting the various GOP candidates: Read more
Yesterday, I posted about how it puzzled me that Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, would support Donald Trump. He seemed to say as much last month during an interview with KCRW, an NPR affiliate in California. He was introduced as a Trump supporter and said nothing to counter that, and then he gave reasons for why he liked the candidate. It wasn’t quite an endorsement, but that seemed like a distinction without a difference. Other websites certainly ran with it. But was the characterization accurate? I asked Shermer directly and he rejected it, saying this in an on-the-record email: Read more
Get this: At Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School For Innovation in Lynchburg, Virginia, a white teacher interrupted a Black History Month assembly and told the kids to leave the auditorium with him! A letter was sent home to all parents explaining the problem: During the assembly, an employee interrupted the program by going to the microphone on the stage during the singing performance to express his offence with this portion of the program, and offered the students an opportunity to leave the auditorium with him. It appears that the teacher, Jason Tyree, may lose his job over this, given the community reaction. Even former Lynchburg Mayor Carl Hutcherson Jr. asked the school board to fire him: “To the community at large… we would ask that the Lynchburg city school board summarily dismiss this person who committed this grievance,” said Mr. Hutcherson Jr. It all makes sense… until you realize that the adults in this situation have it all wrong. Read more