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.
Salon published a rather thorough and (frankly) positive interview with Sam Harris the other day. Or so I thought. First, the good stuff. In his interview with Sean Illing, Harris was able to talk at length on his views instead of being cut down to the sound bites we often hear. You get a real sense of where he stands on Islam, spirituality, etc. Good. That’s what you hope to read in an interview. If you want to criticize his various stances, then you better state his beliefs accurately, and this interview allows for that. The problem, however, is that Salon cut out one particular section from the original interview — and it was the part that was critical of Salon for publishing so much nonsense that saying “it’s published on Salon” is now a punchline. Read more
It appears that there may be hope for Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, who was facing another 950 lashes to round out a punishment he received last year (and was upheld a few months ago). After being sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “insulting Islam,” Badawi received the first 50 lashes at the beginning of the year, with the expectation that he would receive 50 more every Friday for a total of 20 weeks. But those additional lashes never came for reasons that were unclear. Here’s the good news: Yves Rossier, the Swiss secretary of Foreign Affairs, has told the newspaper La Liberté that Badawi’s sentence has been officially suspended. Read more
