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.
Gallup released a poll yesterday marking the differences in levels of trust when compared to one’s political party. For example, 68% of Republicans trusted police officers, while only 44% of Democrats said the same. When it came to members of the clergy, there was a similar differential: Not too surprising, really. The Religious Right is intertwined with the GOP, so you would expect there to be a higher level of trust for clergy members in that party. But here’s where it got interesting. When you parsed the numbers by age, only a third of people 18-34 said they trusted the clergy: This is the effect of the Nones: Not only is faith in faith fading fast, but faith in the leaders of faith is dropping. Read more
Last week, I posted about how 5th grader Zachary Golob-Drake was planning to give a speech that could’ve earned him a spot as one of the representatives to the regional 4-H Tropicana Public Speech contest… unfortunately, the assistant principal at USF/Patel Partnership Elementary School (in Tampa, Florida) told him he would have to rewrite his speech or drop out of the contest altogether. The reason? His speech was all about the harms of religious extremism and how the Golden Rule should prevail… and it was deemed too inappropriate: School District Spokeswoman Tanya Arja said school officials told her that the controversy wasn’t about the religious aspect. “The concern was over the topic of mass murders,” Arja said. “Because these are 4th and 5th graders.” Zachary made a point of saying that mass murder was wrong, but let’s be honest: He was just talking about world history. Religion has contributed to those mass murders. Why hide the fact? (You can read the speech for yourself to see how “offensive” it really isn’t.) There’s finally some good news: Zachary was allowed to compete with his speech and he won! Read more
It just got a little more cluttered in the Wisconsin Capitol building. There’s already a “natural nativity scene” there thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation: And FFRF also put up a couple of signs in honor of the Winter Solstice: That’s all in addition to the Festivus pole that’s also on display. Now, the Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison are adding a display of their own to the mix: The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Read more
