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.
Jonny Scaramanga has done a wonderful job exposing the fundamentalist-homeschooler-approved “Accelerated Christian Education” curriculum, usually by quoting from it verbatim). Now, he shows us the lessons learned from ACE by way of the cartoons in the textbooks. Like the fact that the schools depicted in them always seem to be segregated… Read more
Aaron Loy (below), writing for the Chrsitian site RELEVANT, offers “five really bad reasons to leave your church”. As it turns out, he’s right. They’re really bad reasons: 1. “I’m not being [spiritually] fed” “As a Christian, you shouldn’t require spoon-feeding for the rest of your life. Eventually you need to learn how to feed yourself so that, in time, you can actually feed others.” 2. “It’s getting too big” “If you have a problem with big churches… you definitely won’t like heaven.” 3. “I don’t agree with everything that is being preached” “The truth is when you choose to stay despite disagreeing on some things, you, your pastor and your church are better for it.” 4. “My Needs Aren’t Being Met” “The Church doesn’t exist to meet your needs. You are a part of the Church that exists to meet the needs of the world.” 5. Unresolved Conflict “When we leave at first sign of real conflict, it shortchanges God’s best work in our midst. It sidesteps the process of repentance, forgiveness and grace.” Here’s the problem: All of these things boil down to one idea: If you want to leave the church, there’s something wrong with you. The church and the pastor can do no wrong. It’s worth getting more specific, though, and for those of us who don’t go to church, feel free to replace that word with “college” because the arguments are almost identical. Read more
The Lubbock Independent School District in Texas is home to Lowrey Field, where the four high schools in the area play their home football games. The 8,500-seat stadium also houses a digital billboard where companies like Whataburger, Fuddruckers, and United Supermarkets pay for ads to run during the big games. So, naturally, the man behind JesusTattoo.org wanted to place an ad there, too: (The website has nothing to do with tattoos, by the way. It’s just one guy’s failed idea of a “hip” way to convert teens to Christianity.) Believe it or not — and to their credit — the district said no. It was religious, they said, and they didn’t want to violate the Constitution. So, naturally, the man behind JesusTattoo.org has filed a lawsuit claiming his rights are being violated. Read more
It was more than 18 months ago when Indonesian atheist Alexander Aan was sentenced to prison for 2.5 years for the “crime” of posting “blasphemous” statements on Facebook, criticizing Islam and asking for proof of God’s existence on a group page for the Minang Atheists. Today, however, the Jakarta Post reports some good news: Aan has been released! Read more