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.
A couple of weeks ago, National Geographic’s website posted a video of Bill Nye teaching us five things we needed to know about climate change: Creationist Ken Ham and his crack research team have now released “rebuttals” to all his points. And they’re full of as much science as you’d expect. Read more
Priscilla Blossom lost her daughter a mere 8 hours after birth. It’s a possibility that’s frightening for me on a personal level and I know many of you have had to deal with it in your own lives. As she and her husband dealt with their grief, what made things even worse were all the religious friends and family members who used religious language to comfort her: Read more
Our latest podcast guest is David Williamson, founder and President of the Central Florida Freethought Community. His group has been leading the way when it comes to getting atheists to give invocations at local government meetings. I spoke with David about why secular invocations are so valuable, step by step instructions on what local activists can do to get on these invocation lists, and what atheists should say if they get the opportunity to speak in front of government officials. Read more
Greg Koukl, a Christian apologist, made a video recently in which he said God’s existence is obvious and atheists are just trying to suppress the truth. He compared us to people trying to hide a beach ball underwater — it’s trying to come up and we’re doing everything we can to hold it back. (He’s wrong, of course. Atheists say there’s no beach ball at all. We’re not fighting the truth; we believe in a very different truth altogether.) Koukl’s comments are indicative of someone who’s never talked to an atheist before. Read more
If you needed evidence that government praying is all about promoting Christianity, just look at what’s happening in Pittsylvania County in Virginia. A full recap is here but a quick summary will work: In 2012, the county’s Board of Supervisors began each meeting with a prayer to Jesus Christ. And it wasn’t citizens saying the prayers, but the Supervisors themselves, which clearly violated the law. Read more
