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, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill allowing mentally competent, terminally ill patients to end life on their own terms, using drugs prescribed by their doctors. We should all be glad he signed it. There are religious conservatives who think taking your own life is an affront to God and that you have to let nature run its course — even when you’re deathly sick, in constant pain, and have no hope for recovery. They think the God who inflicted that pain upon you should be allowed to torture you as long as He wants. Could they be any more cruel? Read more
Atheist Sam Harris and Muslim Maajid Nawaz have written a book discussing the Islamic faith in the form of a conversation between the two. That also includes Nawaz correcting misconceptions about the faith held by Harris, who wasn’t raised in it. It’s called Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue: Read more
We know fundamentalist religion is a particularly potent institution; it’s a subset of organized religion characterized by dogma, literal adherence to scripture, hostility to critical thinking, intolerance, indoctrination, and absolute faith. Atheists (and even moderate theists) play a critical role in countering that type of thinking. Unchecked, not only can the power of fundamentalists grow excessive, but a lack of heterodoxy, generally, also stifles overall human progress. South Asia is a particularly religious part of the world. Religious fundamentalists – chiefly Hindu and Muslim, but also others – wield significant power, as do allied charlatans of all sorts, from “godmen” to tantriks to peddlers in black magic. For a heretic in the region, life has always been dangerous. In recent years, however, promoting critical thinking has become a “crime” punishable by death. No fewer than 12 freethinkers have been murdered in South Asia by religious fundamentalists in this decade. Read more
Mike Huckabee in 2014: I would never boycott companies like Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple even though I disagree with their owners’ politics. Mike Huckabee in early 2015: Boycotts against anti-gay businesses are a form of “economic terrorism.” Mike Huckabee in late 2015: Let’s boycott Frito-Lay and their gay Doritos! Read more
