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.
After a mistaken introduction in which Fox News Channel host Gretchen Carlson said it was atheists who wanted to put up a Satanic monument outside the Oklahoma Capitol building — she apologized for that on Twitter — her “faith panel” shared their thoughts on the recently-revealed Satanic monument design: Read more
Usually, a newspaper’s comic page isn’t my go-to place for stories about religion but there was a fascinating storyline last week in Ray Billingsley’s “Curtis,” a strip about an African-American family. The premise was that the “most religious woman in the world” was coming to babysit Curtis and his little brother Barry (you can see the full storyline here — a couple of the strips are below): I’m not used to seeing (even fundamentalist) religion mocked with such ease in a comic strip, and I was especially surprised to see it happening in a strip revolving around a black family where church is usually as much a part of the culture as anything else. I was really curious what led to this storyline and whether Billingsley got any negative pushback from readers. He was kind enough to respond to my questions via email. Read more
Tony, Tony, Tony, what on earth were you thinking…? Tony Jones, a progressive Christian blogger on Patheos, just wrote a post explaining why he’s a Christian. And instead of offering your standard run-of-the-mill, easily-refutable apologetics, he made what may be the worst argument ever for believing in God: Everyone else does it. And he threw in some awfully ignorant remarks about atheists, too. Read more
Last month, a student-led revolution began at Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle, Washington. It started when Assistant Principal Mark Zmuda was forced to resign from his position after school officials confronted him about his sexual orientation and summer wedding: Before his final day at the school, hundreds of students staged a protest online, on Twitter, in the cafeteria, and outside the school: The students, like Zmuda, are all aware that the Catholic Church is an anti-gay organization and school officials are well within their right to fire Zmuda. But that doesn’t mean the students have to stand by and just watch it happen. In fact, they’re planning an even bigger protest at the end of the month: Read more
Here’s the setup: Just before the holidays, 6-year-old Isaiah Martinez (below) went to Merced Elementary School in West Covina, California with a pack of candy canes in hand to give to his classmates. Each candy cane had attached to it a religious message that told the “legend of the candy cane” which, believe it or not, has everything to do with Jesus dying on a cross. His teacher, not wanting to get in trouble, removed the messages from the candy canes, then handed them back to Isaiah to give to his friends, apparently telling him “Jesus is not allowed in school.” So, of course, a Christian group is threatening to file a lawsuit against the district: Read more
