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.
President Obama said a few months ago, “If I presented a cure for cancer, getting legislation passed to move that forward would be a nail-biter.” He’s unfortunately right. Political pressure can derail even the most obvious of bills. That example is hypothetical, but a real example just happened in Pakistan, where a bill to ban child marriages has been blocked by Muslim extremists. Read more
Today, on Martin Luther King Day, Donald Trump will speak at Liberty University as a way to get closer with the Republican Party’s evangelical base. The date isn’t a coincidence, either, as the school’s President Jerry Falwell, Jr. said to a reporter, “We chose that day so that Mr. Trump would have the opportunity to recognize and honor Dr. King on MLK day.” So there’s no better time to remind everyone that the school’s founder Jerry Falwell, Sr. was hardly a champion of civil rights, including the causes for which King fought. Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University, explains: Read more
Our latest podcast guest is Chris Shelton, a man who spent 27 years in the Church of Scientology. Shelton attained those high levels you only hear about in HBO documentaries, but he got out about three years ago and is now a vocal critic of the Church. He just published a book called Scientology: A to Xenu: An Insider’s Guide to What Scientology is All About. We spoke with Chris about what tipped him off to the Church’s deceptions, what he was taught about Xenu, and what he believes would be the single biggest blow to the Church’s existence. Read more
