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.
In 1969, one of the original Christian rock musicians, Larry Norman, released a song all about the upcoming rapture called “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” While many artists have covered the song, few people have really dissected the incredibly messed up lyrics and ideas contained in it. Enter the blogger at Christian Nightmares. In 1979, he saw the Christian film A Thief in the Night, which featured the song. He told me it “lodged itself in my brain and haunted me for years.” Read more
It’s been said that religions are all a giant game of telephone — you pass down stories generation after generation and there’s plenty of opportunity for mistranslations along the way. The Guardian’s David Shariatmadari has now compiled a list of the top ten biblical typos — actual mistakes that made their way into “official” copies of the book. Like this one: Read more
A couple of years ago, a Florida Atlantic University professor was teaching students about the power of symbols. To illustrate his point, he asked students to write the word “Jesus” on a piece of paper and stomp on it. The fact that many students felt uncomfortable was precisely his point: Why are we suddenly so hesitant to ruin something that we normally wouldn’t think twice about? That professor soon got in a lot of trouble because a student complained that this was somehow an anti-Christian exercise. Conservative media outlets jumped on the story, neglecting the fact that the professor was actually a Sunday School teacher himself. Dr. Ben Carson, who has a nasty habit of ignoring reality, used that FAU story as an example of what he would put a stop to when he becomes President. In an interview with talk radio host Dana Loesch on Thursday, Carson said he planned to cut federal funding from schools like FAU that he deemed guilty of “extreme bias.” Read more
Last month, Lawrence Krauss wrote an article for the New Yorker’s website about why all scientists should be “militant atheists.” His argument was that good science relied on good evidence, and since religious claims aren’t based on evidence and are seriously harmful, scientists should actively fight against them. Keltner Locke, an administrative law judge writing for The Tennessean, isn’t happy with that article at all. He especially didn’t like that Krauss wrote about how there’s a “purposeless” quality to the universe; it works in ways that have nothing to do with God’s Magic Hand. Locke says the universe *obviously* has a purpose. And he’s going to tell us why. Read more
Baba Brinkman is the brilliant songwriter behind The Rap Guide to Evolution. He just released his latest project, appropriately called The Rap Guide to Religion. You can stream the entire album online, though I hope you consider purchasing it so he can keep putting albums like this out. If you’re looking for a sample of his music, I would recommend “Religion Evolves”: Read more
