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.
Days after making all of us *facepalm* by pointing out that 32% of all Americans think the Syrian crisis is part of the “End Times,” LifeWay Research has published another result from the same poll and this one’s equally disturbing if not worse: LifeWay Research asked four questions about mental illness as part of a telephone survey of 1,001 Americans conducted Sept. 6-10, 2013. Thirty-five percent agree with the statement, “With just Bible study and prayer, ALONE, people with serious mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia could overcome mental illness.” … Evangelical, fundamentalist, or born-again Christians (48 percent) agree prayer can overcome mental illness. Only 27 percent of other Americans agree. [Click headline for more…] Read more
More than a year and a half ago, atheist Justin Vacula and the NEPA Freethought Society attempted to place the following ad on buses in the County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) in Pennsylvania: That’s almost literally the least offensive atheist ad ever. It says the word, then shuts up. COLTS rejected the ad, calling it too “controversial.” Justin appealed the decision with the help of American Atheists, but the COLTS leaders didn’t change their minds. “We will not allow our transit vehicles or property to become a public forum for the debate and discussion of public issues, and since passing this policy in June, we have been very consistent in not allowing any ads that violate the policy. That’s why we didn’t permit Mr. Vacula’s ad promoting atheism,” said COLTS solicitor Tim Hinton. A week ago, Justin tried one last time. He submitted a similar ad. Once again he was rejected. And yesterday, COLTS voted on a new policy that’ll prevent this debacle from ever happening again: [Click headline for more…] Read more
It was just over a year ago when Annaka Harris launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her new children’s book I Wonder: I Wonder is about a little girl named Eva who takes a walk with her mother and encounters a range of mysteries — from gravity, to life cycles, to the vastness of the universe. She learns to talk about how it feels to not know something, and she learns that it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” Eva discovers that she has much to learn about the world and that there are many things even adults don’t know — mysteries for everyone in the world to wonder about together! A wonderful premise. Today, that book is finally available for preorder — it’ll be published on October 15: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Southeastern Freethinkers Society at Southeastern Oklahoma State University only formed last spring, but already, they’ve experienced the sort of petty vandalism veteran groups know plenty about. This week, group leaders created flyers to promote their weekly meetings. The flyers were approved by the office of Student Life, so group members had permission to place them on certain campus bulletin boards. It features a message that we’ve seen on many atheist billboards: “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” That harmless, or dare I say “shocking,” message still rubbed some students the wrong way. Normally, when you put up flyers, you only notice a day or two later that they’ve been written on or torn down. There’s no evidence and little recourse you can take except to put new flyers up (maybe with a sarcastic message on it reading, “Please don’t tear me down! God is watching you”). This time, though, group members decided they would monitor the flyers in some of the more popular spots on campus, just to see if they could catch anyone doing the deed. Turns out they did. [Click headline for more…] Read more