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.
In Dutch philosopher Floris Van Den Berg’s new book Philosophy for a Better World (Prometheus Books, 2013), he “charges individuals to reimagine society from the position of one at the political and ethical control board.” In other words, it’s full of a lot of interesting thought experiments that involve you putting yourself in the shoes of others (including animals in a fascinating section on vegetarianism/veganism). In the excerpt below, reprinted with permission of the publishers, Van Den Berg discusses “A New Golden Rule.” (Keep reading afterwards for your chance to win a copy of the book!) [Click headline for more…] Read more
Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla reports on a conversation Ray Comfort had on pseudo-historian David Barton’s radio show … in which Barton claims “atheists get angry because they do know that God exists” and wonders why atheists get upset when evolution is challenged since he never gets upset when people claim Bigfoot is real: You challenge what they believe about evolution and they get angry. And you ask them questions they can’t answer about their own belief, they get angry. And I was thinking too, you know, they do that in so many areas, including faith areas. … Why is it that atheists get mad? If they don’t believe in God, then why do they care if we do. And yet they go out there, working so hard and they’re so angry to shut down every expression. There’s groups that I don’t agree with and I don’t believe with, but I’m not angry at them and I’m not looking to shut down their existence. [Click headline for more…] Read more
I’m a huge fan of bloggers who function as community watchdogs, making sure things like church/state separation are being respected in areas that larger media outlets may not be paying much attention to. For months now, Randall Hayes has been tracking House Bill 660 in Louisiana, a bill sponsored by Democrat Katrina R. Jackson (below), that would have required all the state’s elementary and high schools to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Last we heard, that bill had been renamed House Bill 724 and gutted to the point that no formal prayers would be allowed in school and no students would be required to participate. On Tuesday, however, Randall noticed something strange in the Bastrop Enterprise newspaper: [Click headline for more…] Read more
