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.
I mentioned earlier this month that FreeOK, an atheist group based in Oklahoma, was running a major charity drive to give presents to kids in foster care and families affected by natural disasters: Locals can participate by “adopting a child” on their site, purchasing gifts for those children, and dropping them off at designated locations later. (Those living elsewhere could also help out by purchasing something from the group’s Amazon Wishlist so that they can give it away at a later time.) Yesterday morning, FreeOK’s Aimee Breeze and Kai Tancredi appeared on KFOR-TV’s morning show to talk about the charity drive and did an excellent job of promoting the project without getting bogged down in any sort of religious debate (quite a feat for a talk show in Oklahoma!): Read more
Cue all the trigger warnings for this one. (I’m pretty immune to graphic, disturbing things online, but this one made me squirm on the inside.) I only link to this story of a brutal sexual assault because it includes this single sentence: Mr. Paulino offered only one comment to reporters, saying he had Jesus on his side. How anyone could do what this man did — and then have the audacity to suggest Jesus would defend him in some way — is just beyond belief. Read more
Even though Pope Francis has charmed the socks off of even many hardcore atheists, a new analysis of data by the Pew Research Center shows that Francis’ popularity hasn’t led to more people sitting in pews on Sunday or even more people becoming Catholics in general. In fact, the data looks like the electrocardiogram of a dead patient: Read more
If you happen to visit the life-size Nativity Scene in downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza (on Dearborn and Washington), don’t forget to also stop by the local chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s new 8.5-foot-tall Scarlet A which stands alongside a new banner. Both were unveiled this morning: Read more