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.
Upon hearing that atheists are trying to get Humanist chaplains in the military, the National Post’s Rex Murphy had something of a meltdown. He wrote a long tirade about this is just another hallmark of the “Angry Atheist” brigade: I think the late Christopher Hitchens’ screed against Mother Teresa, his unmanly attempt to pulverize the reputation of the Albanian nun who gave her life to tending Calcutta’s dying poor, was the low point of his otherwise stellar output… … Hitchens’ grim, self-advertising equal, Richard Dawkins, is a very bundle of anger and aggressiveness… … They can be very prickly on this stuff. They have mastered the art of bewailing their discomfort at a breach of that great standby in such matters, their “human rights.” Actually, of course, the comforts of religion, for believers, are not “human” rights at all, but the mercies of a benevolent God… Regarding Hitchens and Dawkins, what Murphy ignores is that the atheists were (and are) more interested in the Truth than they were being politically correct. When the facts lean one way and the majority of people lean the other, of course you’re going to come off as frustrating. I don’t see them as angry. I see them as appalled by how oblivious a lot of people can be. Okay, so Murphy plays the stereotypes and writes a lazy man’s column. But he really goes off the deep end when he writes about military atheists: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last night, “Religious Left” leader Jim Wallis appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher. While the interview started out alright, I kept finding myself disappointed with Wallis’ answers — Maher kept asking him questions that any atheist interested in the Truth would ask, and Wallis kept dodging them in order to make the point that religion can be used for good (which no one is denying and is completely besides the point): Josh Feldman at Mediaite points out one particular exchange that was really frustrating to watch: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses how Kirk Cameron doesn’t seem to understand the atheism he loves to talk about. In case you missed Cameron’s video from a couple of days ago, you’ll want to watch that here first! 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
If you’re in New York City, you may want to stop by the Sunday Assembly (a.k.a. “Atheist Church”) gathering tomorrow at Tobacco Road: The speaker will be Charles Darwin’s great-great-grandson (and writer/director of The Ledge) Matthew Chapman: American Atheists’ Amanda Knief will also address the “congregation.” The event begins at 12:30p so you can sleep in if you’d like! More information can be found at the group’s Facebook page. Read more
Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called on the nation of Kazakhstan to release two prisoners, one of whom is there because he’s a public atheist: 63-year-old Aleksandr Kharlamov (seen above) has been kept in a psychiatric hospital for the past four months for “inciting religious hatred” and could face up to seven years in prison. Damn… how did he incite all this religious hatred? He talked about why atheism made sense and religion didn’t. That’s it. [Click headline for more…] Read more