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.
Ernest Jones has an interesting strategy for winning football games: his team always gets one more player than his opponents. In an interview last week with the Hartford Courant, the UConn football team’s new assistant coach explained his philosophy on the role of faith on his team: “And we’re going to do things in our building, fellowship, non-denominational type things, players, coaches. We’re going to make sure they understand that Jesus Christ should be in the center of our huddle, that that’s something that is important. If you want to be successful and you want to win, get championships, then you better understand that this didn’t happen because of you. This happened because of our Lord and Savior. That’s going to be something said by [new head coach] Bob Diaco. That’s something that’s going to be said by Ernest Jones. That’s who we are.” There’s important subtext in there: 1) Atheists are not welcome on the public university’s football team and 2) Jesus really wants UConn’s opponents to lose. Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker, a Catholic blogger here on Patheos, wrote last year about how atheism is boring, dull, bland, and humorless. Christianity, on the other hand, had “cool stuff like snake handlers, incorrupt bodies of saints, relics, Eucharistic miracles, statues that weep and bleed, [and] apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Which is a pretty sad thing to say: We make things up and they’re way more interesting than your silly “reality”! Read more
On Sunday, when national political figures normally appear on morning talk shows, Pennsylvania Rep. Rick Saccone appeared on a local show called “Face the State” hosted by reporter Robb Hanrahan. If the name Saccone sounds familiar, it’s probably because he’s the Republican who sponsored legislation to make 2012 the “Year of the Bible,” declared May 3 of that year to be the “National Day of Prayer,” sponsored “National Fast Day” in 2013 (which said we owe our dependence “upon the overruling power of God” and that the only nations that are blessed are the ones “whose God is the Lord”), and — most relevant here — is currently working to put the words “In God We Trust” in every public school in the state. So Saccone was on “Face the State” to talk about his proposed legislation. And he made some rather indefensible claims… Read more