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.
We already knew the majority of people of Iceland support church/state separation. And we knew some of them even joined an ancient religion just so their tax money wouldn’t go to any established church. And we know young people are generally less religious than the general population. But who knew the numbers were so skewed? While less than half the country is religious, a poll commissioned by Siðmennt (the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association) found that 0.0% — not a typo — of people under the age of 25 believe God created the universe, with a whopping 93.9% of that age group saying they accepted the Big Bang theory. Read more
It was supposed to be easy. And during our first venture as parents, it was easy. Soon after tossing our Jehovah’s Witness mindset into the trash, my wife Jennifer and I were faced with all manners of decisions about parenting. Of course, those decisions were present before, but we didn’t have to think about them because the Watchtower Society made all the decisions for us. But in 2006, as newly minted non-religious people with a one-year-old child, we had to make some decisions without any help (read: coercion) from the Watchtower Society. Among the biggies: How are we gonna handle Santa Claus? Read more
After South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gave the Republican rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address this week, much of the media attention was on her indirect criticism of Donald Trump’s hateful rhetoric. Most establishment Republicans loved that she called him out on it. That’s not what Christian Right leader Bryan Fischer found objectionable about her speech. Instead, he couldn’t stand a different line. It came when Haley was talking about what Republicans would do if they held the White House: We would respect differences in modern families, but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy. If you’re like me, you rolled your eyes at that line, because Republicans don’t respect a damn thing about gay couples. In the battle of civil rights versus bigotry, they opt for bigotry every time. But Fischer was furious that Haley even bothered to give gay families lip service: Read more
Jesus must be whispering some strange messages into the minds of his followers. When a man in Nashville robbed a Bank of America branch last week, cameras caught him armed with only a Bible. I guess his ransom note said something like, “If you don’t give me money, I’m going to read this out loud.” Police are still trying to identify him. Read more
A couple of years ago, President Obama(‘s staff) tweeted this line about the consensus on climate change: 97% of scientists agree that climate change is “real, man-made and dangerous.” Strong, powerful words from the President. And right-wingers went nuts, trying to discredit it. Turns out that number was indeed wrong… but in the other direction. It was actually an underestimate. Read more
