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.
Here’s a really neat video featuring a bunch of children from India answering questions about religion. At first, they seem a little ignorant on the subject, offering answers that basically amount to calling different religions “Christianity, Islam, and people from the West Coast.” But when they’re asked if people of other religions are any different from them, their intelligence is apparent: Of course there’s no difference, they all say. What would the world be like without religion? Oh, just turn on the English captioning and listen to their responses. They’re wonderful. Read more
Last Friday, 11-year-old Maurissa Rushing was on the bus heading to Pathway Academy, a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri. She sat next to her best friend and they played a game that involves one girl’s fingers racing up and down the other’s arm. When the bus arrived at school, the other kids were let off, but the driver asked Maurissa and her friend to stay behind so she could teach them a lesson: Read more
Many people — monotheistic and atheistic alike — find the inscriptions of “In God We Trust” on U.S. money to be offensive for myriad reasons. In a court of law in a constitutional democracy, however, the only reason that matters is if the practice is unlawful. And under American law, the practice is clearly unlawful. Read more
It’s stunning how many public school teachers and administrators have no clue what the law says about the Pledge of Allegiance. In short, no one has to participate and it’s perfectly acceptable if students don’t. When 14-year-old Fatima M. Smart chose to sit during the Pledge at Monadnock Regional Middle School in Swanzey, New Hampshire this spring, she was unfairly punished for her act of defiance: Read more