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.
On Saturday, Salon published an article by Steve Stankevicius that appeared to be yet another slam on the New Atheists. In other words, a typical Salon article. The title was “New atheists must become new vegans: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the extra burden on moral leaders.” Those first six words made it sound like a mandate, and it invited the obvious rebuttals that atheism doesn’t mean anything beyond not believing in a god. Atheists don’t have to be Democrats, pro-choice, vegan, etc., even if many are. And the inclusion of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris in the headline makes it sound like the author was purposely attacking them. What’s ironic about all this is that the person who seems most upset about this article and Salon’s handling of it is Steve Stankevicius. Read more
In May of 2012, the Secular Coalition for America hired a new Executive Director who certainly made a lot of heads turn because of her resume. Edwina Rogers was a Republican who had previously worked for some very conservative politicians. It was an odd choice, at least on paper, to represent mostly liberal atheists on Capitol Hill. But if she could do her job effectively, open doors previously closed to us, and convey the thoughts of millions of Secular Americans to politicians, then her label, I felt, could become an afterthought. Many of you disagreed. A lot of atheists I’ve spoken to simply never warmed to Rogers in large part because of her political affiliation. Then, in mid-2014, for reasons that are still being debated, Rogers was unceremoniously fired from the SCA. She later sued the organization for wrongful termination and defamation; the lawsuit still hasn’t been officially resolved. For the past year and a half, the SCA has been under the leadership of interim director Kelly Damerow as its board looked for a new Executive Director. Today, they’re announcing their selection: Larry T. Decker. Read more
Michael Newdow, the atheist who fought all the way to the Supreme Court to remove “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, has just filed another lawsuit to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency. The federal lawsuit, which was filed in Akron, Ohio, may be unique for relying not on the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, but on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In essence, Newdow takes the same argument used by Hobby Lobby to get out of covering contraception for its employees and says that the U.S. Treasury can’t push God onto atheists without a “compelling governmental interest,” which he believes they don’t have. Newdow wrote about his strategy last year on this site: Read more
On New Years Eve, in the city of Cologne, Germany, what was supposed to be a night of celebration turned disturbing very quickly. We’ve learned that hundreds of women may have been sexually assaulted or had their property stolen that night by anywhere from 400 to 1,000 men. So far, hundreds of criminal complaints have been filed — and there are likely many more who haven’t done that yet. How does this sort of thing happen? Many of the women filing reports pointed the finger at men of “Arab or North African origin” — in other words, the same breakdown as many of the immigrants coming into the country. It’s unclear whether this was coordinated, though with that many people allegedly involved, it very well could have been. The whole situation has left German media outlets and politicians trying to figure out how to report this. They have been one of the countries most welcoming to refugees, and yet, this problem may be the result of that generosity. On the flip side, law-abiding Muslims are doing their best to distance their community from the actions of those who may share their faith. Read more
