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.
Back in March, Constable Bobby Gutierrez (sort of like a sheriff) retired, so the commissioners in Williamson County, Texas had to replace him. They interviewed five candidates and asked them each a series of important, relevant questions: Are you for or against gay marriage? Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Who did you vote for in the last election? What are your religious beliefs? Because you have to be a good conservative Christian to be a cop. Robert Lloyd, who was interviewed for the position but didn’t get it, is now suing the commissioners (along with Williamson County Judge Dan Gattis, who was also involved in the hiring process) over the illegal line of questioning: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Ben Hubbard and Mayy El Sheikh of the New York Times have a frightening report of how charges against blasphemy — a victimless crime, as the joke goes — are increasing dramatically in Egypt under President Mohamed Morsi. It’s a witch-hunt, pure and simple. Just take a look at what happened to this teacher who was falsely accused of insulting religion and the government: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The annual conference for Atheist Alliance of America takes place on Labor Day Weekend in Boston this year and early bird registration is coming to a close soon. If you’re able to attend, get your tickets now! Kids are welcome, there’s a strong group of speakers, and the student discounts are terrific: Read more
Two years ago, a seven-year-old was told that she had to pledge an oath to god if she wanted to remain in Girlguiding UK (their version of the Girl Scouts). The pledge reads: ‘I promise that I will do my best, to love my God, to serve the Queen and my country, to help other people and to keep the Brownie Guide law.’ Her parents, Barry and Juliette Willett, are furious the 2nd Crawley Down Brownies troop in West Sussex… Read more
Every now and then, the writers on this site will be working on a post about, say, Creationism being taught in a high school biology class… and we realize it would be great if we could talk to an atheist who teaches high school biology! Maybe we want to quote you in the post. Or (more likely) we just need to ask you a question about high school science curriculums in general. It’s not just education — there are many times when we have questions about business or law or medicine or music, but we don’t know anyone in those fields we can talk to. So we’re trying to compile an online Rolodex of sorts and that’s where we could use your help. If you work in a particular profession (like medicine or law) or have an expertise in some area (like video games), we’d love to be able to get in touch with you in the event that we’re working on a story about that subject. We created a form for you to fill out. It should only take you a minute to complete, and it’ll allow us to compile a database of contacts that we can use when we need to. (Obviously, we’re not going to post the information you give us anywhere, and we’re not going to contact you unless we really need your input about something.) Thanks for your help! Read more