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.
Yesterday, as new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was sworn in, a lot of attention went to the makeup of his 31-member cabinet. When asked why he felt it was so important to have a gender-balanced cabinet, Trudeau answered very bluntly, “Because it’s 2015.” That’s a great answer. Also worth noting, though, is that half of his cabinet did not swear in with a religious oath. Instead, they opted to take a Solemn Affirmation that didn’t include any mention of God: Read more
Yesterday, Dr. Ben Carson proved once again that you can be brilliant in one field and batshit crazy in all the other ones. Speaking in 1998 at a graduation ceremony for Andrews University (a school affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist church), Carson told the students his personal theory of why the pyramids were built (around the 3:45 mark): Read more
Back in September, I posted about a Texas principal who thought he was being paid to act as a priest. Prosper High School Principal Greg Wright preached at a See You at the Pole event and single-handedly formed a Christian club at the school. Neither was legal and both showed a complete disregard for students to handle their own religious activities. At the same time, teachers at the school were leading religious clubs and at least one staffer had religious iconography hanging in her office. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Prosper Independent School District listing Wright’s repeated constitutional violations: Read more
