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.
Richard Dawkins created his own controversy in a recent interview when he spoke almost nonchalantly about his own childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his teacher. My big issue with him wasn’t that he was able to get past it to the point where he said he “couldn’t find it in [himself] to condemn” his teacher. My problem with his comments were that, in speaking so casually about such a deadly-serious topic, he gave the impression that other victims who went through similar (or worse) situations should also be able to get past it. He didn’t mean to do that. Of course he didn’t mean to minimize sexual abuse. But he effectively did, and he of all people should know the power of his own words. Yesterday, in response to the controversy, my (Christian) friend Rachel Held Evans noted that she didn’t hold Dawkins’ words against all other atheists and called on us to make a deal with her: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The controversy involving Syria has 32% of Americans thinking that it’s all part of the “end times” as told in the Bible. 32%! A third of Americans seem to think there will be a Left Behind novel written about Syria. More specifically, 26% of Americans think that the Syrian conflict is foreshadowing Armageddon. This is all according to Christian pollsters LifeWay Research: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how an execution was postponed in Florida so that the Attorney General could hold a fundraiser for her re-election campaign: 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
The folks at College Humor have answered the question: “Is God Made Up?” And you won’t believe it: the website that mocks everything in sight found a way to mock religion… Love the line at 1:39: “Religion has had a profound, transformative effect on my life. It’s transformed my Facebook feed from boring to insufferable.” Anyway, glad we finally settled that debate. Read more