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.
Atheists spend a lot of time talking about how to improve the world, but the four students who are part of the Pathfinders Project are actually doing that overseas right now. One of the projects they’re working on (with Children of the Border) is building latrines for people in La Fond-Jeannette, Haiti, a community still dealing with the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. If you can help them out, every $300 raised is enough for one more latrine. Read more
About a month ago, the Satanic Temple made nationwide headlines when they said they wanted to donate a monument to be placed in outside the Oklahoma State Capitol building, where a Ten Commandments monument already stood: That was soon followed by a request from a Hindu group that wanted to erect a monument of Lord Hanuman. I’m sure more monument requests would have followed, but the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission voted unanimously on December 19 to declare a moratorium on… Read more
When Michael Higgins was running to become the President of Ireland in 2011, he told Atheist Ireland of his desire for a country more inclusive of the non-religious perspective, including the re-examination of the presidential oath with its godly language (“May God direct and sustain me”): Do you personally agree that, as a President elected by the people, many of whom do not believe in a god, you should be required to publicly ask a god to “direct” you in your work as our President? Clearly, if I am elected President I will take the oath: I embarked upon this campaign in the knowledge that this would be expected of me if elected. There is to be a constitutional convention in the new year — which I fully support — and it is at this forum that matters such as the oath ought to be examined. It is of great importance that the Presidency and all surrounding it ought to be fit for purpose for a modern state with a population comprising a large number of different religious beliefs as well as none. In the time since his election, he appears to have lived up to his words. Even his last three Christmas addresses have included no mention of Christ or Christianity. Read more
Christopher Schaeffer was recently elected to the Pomfret Town Board in New York. The image of his swearing-in went viral after pictures of him wearing a colander on his head (he’s a Pastafarian, after all) were published online in The Observer: I had a chance to speak with Schaeffer last night to get more insight into what he was hoping to accomplish, what message he hoped to convey, and what the response has been like for him. Read more
