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.
When Jenna Bachrouche was recruited to play basketball at Oakland University (in Rochester, Michigan) in 2010, her parents asked coach Beckie Francis an important question: “Is Jenna being Muslim going to be an issue?” Francis said no, so Bachrouche enrolled at Oakland. And you’d think that would be the end of the story since Oakland is a public school and religion shouldn’t matter when you’re playing basketball. But as things stand right now, Bachrouche is at Western Michigan University, and Francis has been fired for reasons that aren’t fully clear. What the hell happened? [Click headline for more…] Read more
This is a match made in hell — and it’ll help secular students around the country. The Secular Student Alliance and Freedom From Religion Foundation have announced a joint partnership that will offer free legal help to young atheists whose rights are being violated: [Click headline for more…] Read more
If you were to go skiing at Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana, a resort on land owned by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), you might come across a statue known as “Big Mountain Jesus”: The reason that statue is allowed to be on the property is because the USFS gave the Knights of Columbus a “Special Use Permit” in 1953 to build and maintain a memorial to honor WWII veterans. However, the Knights decided to build Big Mountain Jesus because “veterans from the 10th Mountain Division… wanted to commemorate their fallen comrades with a statue that evoked memories of the many religious shrines and statues they had seen in the mountain communities of Europe.” Isn’t that convenient… [Click headline for more…] Read more
Michael Vines, a St. Louis Cardinals fan, recently noticed that there were Christian symbols on the mound when Adam Wainwright was pitching: For what it’s worth, while that symbol near the bottom left looks like a Jesus Fish, it’s actually the number 6, in honor of Cardinals legend Stan Musial. But there’s no doubt about that cross. [Click headline for more…] Read more