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.
This is a guest post by Sam Shore. Sam is the Light the Night Team Coordinator for the Foundation Beyond Belief (on which I serve on the board). … In 2012, Foundation Beyond Belief raised a record-shattering $430,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by encouraging nonreligious communities to get involved with their local chapters’ Light the Night cancer walks. This year, FBB is taking it a step further by organizing Hug an Atheist Week. [Click headline for more…] Read more
On November 6, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Town of Greece v. Galloway, a case that could decide the fate of invocation prayers at city council meetings. (My summary of the case, the people involved, and the arguments they’ll likely make can be read here.) Earlier today, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed its official brief with the Court — all 78 pages of it — and they responded to the right-wing talking points right up front: [Click headline for more…] Read more
I’ve written a couple of times about the need for the Secular Safe Zone and why we need to make sure young atheists feel safe and comfortable in their non-religious identities: Just a day after the Atlantic published a story on how some students were bullied for not believing in God, Sam Harris came through with a very exciting announcement: Project Reason, the non-profit group run by Harris and his wife, will be matching all donations to the Secular Student Alliance over the next month, up to $30,000. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The summer before Sara Sheppard began her senior year of high school in Katy, Texas, she took an Economics class. Her teacher was well-liked by the students but Sara noticed that he spent a lot of time talking about Christianity in the classroom: As the semester went by I realized that his passion for passing on his knowledge was not focused on economics but focused on religion, prayer, and spirituality. Instead of teaching economics he would teach us that certain historical people were among the greatest because of their spiritual enlightenment. He also expressed to the students that it was human nature to have a spiritual and religious component, therefore making atheists unnatural and against human nature. This teacher went so far with this idea to even compare atheism to smoking and how the body originally rejects smoking just like “the mind rejects the concept of atheism.” Even though she called him out on that last statement, explaining that he shouldn’t say things like that in the classroom, it didn’t change anything. Reporting his conduct didn’t seem like a safe option — it could have made her a target of students and other teachers. So Sara did the next best thing. She recorded the lectures with her iPhone. [Click headline for more…] Read more