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.
Earlier this week, the Shreveport City Council (Louisiana) passed something called the “Be Fair Shreveport” Ordinance, protecting those who are LGBT from workplace discrimination. Sounds like a very logical thing to do, right? As usual, churches and religious non-profit groups were given special exemptions from the new law so they could continue being bigots within their own walls. The Ordinance passed 6-1. Everyone wins! Right?! Almost. The one holdout vote came from council member Ron Webb. You know where this is going: He’s going to say he loves gay people but this Ordinance somehow takes away someone’s religious rights, blah blah blah. Oh, we went much further than that: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, explains why there’s no War on Christmas (no matter what Bill O’Reilly wants you to believe): We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next! Read more
As I mentioned earlier today, the Morton Grove Public Library board of trustees held its monthly board meeting last night and voted 5-2 to reject our donation of over $3,000. Well, it turns out they videotape their monthly meetings and put them up on YouTube… So we can see for ourselves how the discussion went down. I just watched it and, um, wow. You gotta see this. The relevant portion begins at the 32:15 mark: Read more
Remember how New York State Senator Andrew Lanza was outraged by American Atheists’ billboard in Times Square? He said the digital billboard, images of which are below, was “religious persecution of the kind that similarly lead to the Holocaust.” Anyway, get this: In the original press release, Lanza wrote the following: Read more
