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.
Bob Smietana points out something we’ve all known for a long time: When pastors tell you a statistic from the pulpit, you better do some fact-checking of your own. Like these numbers Pastor Mark Driscoll pulled out of nowhere (or, quite possibly, plagiarized from some other liar): What percentage of Americans could be classified as evangelical Christian? The answer is around 8%. There are more left handed people, more Texans, and more pet cats than evangelicals in America. Read more
The first time I heard Robyn Blumner’s name, it was in conjunction with a 2004 column she had written for the St. Petersburg Times (now called the Tampa Bay Times) in which she outed herself as an atheist: I don’t expect to be applauded for these views since they are out of step with the majority of Americans, but neither should I be despised for them. Yet, I will be. I can already imagine the torrent of hate mail, with readers accusing me of all sorts of vile human derangements just because I subscribe to reason and logic to explain the world rather than faith. … America is a country steeped in religion and as such I expect to be bombarded by it. I take no issue with the right of religious people to proselytize, to erect houses of worship on every corner or to broadcast their fervor on television and radio. All I ask in return is a little consideration for the millions of us who don’t join in the “good news.” That column was published the same month that Sam Harris’ The End of Faith came out. While columns like that may be commonplace now (at least online), they sure as hell weren’t a decade ago. She was given an award by the Freedom From Religion Foundation later that year for her piece and the conversation it sparked. Blumner has been a strong advocate for the values shared by many non-theists for years now, having led ACLU affiliates in both Utah and Florida before becoming a columnist. Yesterday, she took perhaps the largest step in our direction, taking on the role of the new Executive Director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science: Read more
The University of Notre Dame, like several Catholic institutions, doesn’t want to provide comprehensive medical coverage for their students so they’re suing in order to get out of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. Even though they don’t have to provide access to birth control, the third-party provider they work with does, and the don’t want that either. This week, three anonymous students at the school joined in on a lawsuit to counter what Notre Dame is doing: Read more
