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.
For a couple of weeks now, there’s been a lot of chatter in Oregon because students in the Portland Public Schools will no longer perform at The Grotto during the Catholic shrine’s Festival of Lights this December. The longtime tradition is coming to an end after the Freedom From Religion Foundation pointed out that the Grotto is a religious venue. A Change.org petition claims that FFRF overstepped its bounds here because the Grotto was “never a Catholic tradition, it wasn’t a religious tradition, it was a performance tradition.” But there’s even more evidence now that the Grotto was clearly not a secular venue. Read more
Several years ago, author A. J. Jacobs wrote a hilarious book called The Year of Living Biblically, in which he tried to follow every rule in the Bible as literally as possible (without killing anyone). It’s taken a while, but the premise of that book is now being used to develop a sitcom. Read more
