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.
According to a disturbing story coming out of Phoenix, 39-year-old Anitra Braxton shot and killed a non-religious woman for the “sin” of not believing in God, then kept the body in her house as a “shrine from God.” Braxton was arrested on Saturday after cops, acting on a tip, visited her home and saw the unnamed victim lying on the couch in a pool of blood: Read more
On the day after Christmas, nearly a dozen Texans were killed as a result of tornadoes in the region. It was horrifying, it was unexpected, and it was exactly what one Christian woman was praying for, apparently. Sabrina Lowe told NPR affiliate reporter Bill Zeeble that she prayed for the tornado to get the hell away from her, because that’s how nature works, don’t you know: Read more
Earlier this year, when the UK Department for Education issued its new curriculum for GCSE Religious Studies classes, the focus was on: Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Sikhism. Humanism, a belief system reflected by far more people than some of the religions on that list combined, wasn’t given the same treatment. That’s why three parents eventually filed a lawsuit against the government (with the help of the British Humanist Association). A month ago, in a major decision from Britain’s High Court, a judge ruled that Education Secretary Nicky Morgan (below) was wrong to exclude Humanism from the Religious Studies classes in the country . To be clear: The ruling didn’t say Humanism *had* to be taught in Religious Education classes, only that specifically excluding it was wrong, but now Morgan is determined to do everything she can to make sure that decision has no significant impact in classrooms where religion was prioritized: Read more
When it comes to science illiteracy in the form of Creationism, we know what kind of people are more likely to believe it: Those who attend church frequently, the elderly, and people without much formal education. But when it comes to parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, the demographics are very different, according to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health: Read more
