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.
For 42 years, there was a Nativity scene placed in a local park in Bellevue, Kentucky. But in order to prevent any potential church/state separation lawsuits, the display was moved to St. John United Church of Christ. Which is exactly what they should’ve done a long time ago, though it’s really wonderful that the city did the right thing without an atheist group having to force their hand. There’s also another tradition in Bellevue. Local churches gather around the Nativity scene every year and have a procession with Bible readings and a candlelight vigil. On Friday night, that procession was scheduled to be held at St. John UCC — instead of the park where it had taken place in the past — but the four other churches in the area all declined the invitation. What was the problem? It turns out the UCC church is just too damn inclusive. They have a gay pastor. They welcome LGBT church members. And the other churches want nothing to do with that pesky idea of “tolerance”: Read more
According to newly-released census results, New Zealand is becoming even more non-religious that anyone thought: Overall, the Census figures continue a trend for people turning away from religion, with all major churches shedding followers. The number of people who said they have no religion increased 26 per cent to 1.6 million. Want more precise numbers? The number of people who categorized themselves under “No Religion” was 1,635,348. Given that the total number of people surveyed was 4,242,048, that puts the Kiwi Nones at a staggering 39% of the population. (It’s 42% if you only count those who gave answers to the “religion” question.) Read more
Jonny Scaramanga got his hands on Packets of Accelerated Christian Education (PACEs) — curriculums used by many Christian educators in the United States and the United Kingdom. Normally, when you see exam questions from Christian schools, the criticism is that the answers are all about the Bible (and also just plain wrong). But Scaramanga’s images of multiple choice questions from a broad range of subjects shows that they’re not just bad questions; the answer choices all point to the obvious answer. Imagine an entire test filled with $100 questions from “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” It’s just like that. Let’s start with the questions for the 10-year-olds: Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses Chris Mooney’s article in which he explains why “it’s easier for humans to believe in God than evolution”: 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
