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.
Our latest podcast guest is Shawna Leneé, an openly atheist adult film star. Shawna has appeared on the cover of Penthouse and won an AVN award for “Unsung Starlet of the Year.” She left the adult industry temporarily, at which point she attended college began a couple of small businesses, but she’s back making movies now. (You should assume everything in this interview is NSFW.) We spoke with Shawna about why she believes her atheism is the most controversial thing about her, whether she meets a lot of religious people on set, and what she plans to tell her kids about her career. Read more
Last week, we learned about a young woman who was stoned to death after eloping with a man she loved in order to escape the future husband her parents had picked out for her. The man in question was given 100 lashes and let go. Now, the New York Times reports that Afghani President Ashraf Ghani has ordered an investigation into the matter. The problem is that one of his investigators is a mullah who thinks adulterers should absolutely be stoned to death… which makes you wonder what, exactly, they’re investigating. Read more
Now that the Mormon Church is officially calling gay people in same-sex relationships “apostates” and forbidding their children from being baptized or confirmed unless they disavow their parents’ love for each other, they’re in damage control mode. People are resigning and they feel the media has been unfair to them. That’s why, on Friday night, the Church released a video interview with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He’s a high-ranking Church leader, so he could set the record straight! Instead, all he did was reiterate how the critics had everything exactly right. Read more
On Friday, at a conference sponsored by Pastor Kevin Swanson (who thinks gay people should be put to death), Sen. Ted Cruz was one of three candidates who took the stage. Swanson asked him the softball question of whether or not the President of the United States needed to fear God. That’s when Cruz began salivating: Read more
