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.
If you think about what the Satanic Temple has accomplished recently, it’s impressive for any group, much less one you didn’t even know existed before 2013. They pressured Oklahoma to reconsider a Ten Commandments monument at its State Capitol building because they wanted a statue of Baphomet in the same space. (The Christian monument was eventually deemed illegal, anyway.) They got a Florida school district to ban Bible distributions because they wanted to give away Satanic-themed coloring books. They got a Satanic display in the Florida State Capitol building to join the Nativity scene last winter. And, perhaps most significantly, they sued the Governor of Missouri on behalf of a member who didn’t want to wait for the 72-hour mandatory waiting period to pass before she could obtain an abortion. She used the argument that waiting so long violated her “religious freedom.” It’s easy to forget that the Satanic Temple doesn’t actually believe in anything supernatural, including Satan. Yet they’ve forced government officials to recognize that if they want to grant privileges to the Christian majority by saying the door is open to all religions, they may have to treat Satanists the same way. It’s an argument that doesn’t always work with atheist groups who explicitly reject God. Valerie Tarico, writing at Salon, spoke with the group’s leader Lucien Greaves about their activism, and he makes some excellent points: Read more
If you’ve been on Google today, then you’ve seen the doodle marking the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, a set of fossils that helped us understand our species’ own origins: As predicted yesterday, some Christians on Twitter are already complaining about how this is some sort of assault on their faith: Read more
According to Pew Research Center data published in the National Journal, white Christians are finally in the minority, dropping from 55% of the population in 2007 to 46% today. In contrast, the generations born after 1981 — the older and younger Millennials — are continuing the trend of shedding their religious labels. More than a third of their populations are “Unaffiliated,” making that the largest demographic in both age groups. Read more
Christopher Hitchens died nearly four years ago, yet his presence is still felt by so many atheists I hear from today. They loved his books, they admire his passion, and they still watch his debates and lectures online. While it may come as a surprise to some readers that his criticism often strayed beyond religion, that was the focus of most of his commentary for decades. Today marks the release of a collection of Hitchens’ previously published essays called And Yet… (Simon & Schuster, 2015). It includes his thoughts on George Orwell, Colin Powell, Salman Rushdie, and so many more. Read more
