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.
You would think professors would go out of their way to help out students in their classes. Every now and then, though, you hear about some who pull a Kim Davis. They’ll find a religious excuse to avoid doing something ridiculously simple even when it would make another person’s life so much better. William Sears, a student with a hearing disability at Memorial University (Newfoundland), has a simple request. He needs his teachers to wear a sound-transmitting device so he can hear them more clearly. But one professor, Dr. Ranee Panjabi, refuses to do it because it violates her religious beliefs: Read more
A few years ago, Sam Harris posted an essay in which he said Muslims — or anyone who looks like a Muslim, whatever that means — ought to be specially screened at the airport. We shouldn’t waste our time, he said, on old ladies or kids or people who are obviously not seeking martyrdom. Random searches made no sense to him when that meant wasting valuable time on people who were never going to be a problem. Read more
Last year, I made a video about how atheists couldn’t be Republicans. The title was purposely hyperbolic but I think the point was clear. I didn’t understand how atheists who typically care about church/state separation, science education, LGBT rights, women’s rights, etc. could vote for the the current crop of GOP candidates. They’re not old school conservatives like Barry Goldwater. Most are religious conservatives who believe the Bible trumps the Constitution, even in government. The rest seem to be pandering to that crowd even if they don’t share those views. Watching the GOP debates yesterday, it was hard to picture any candidate up there worth voting for. Read more
I’ve posted before about a Ten Commandments monument that had been outside Connellsville Junior High East in Pennsylvania since 1957: You can read a longer history here, but the short version of the story is that a judge ruled that the monument’s placement outside a public school was unconstitutional. It was an endorsement of religion, plain and simple. Read more
