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.
If you’re gay, you can now join the Boy Scouts of America. … but only until you turn 18. If you’re a gay adult, you’re banned from the organization. Even if you were a proud scout growing up, you won’t be allowed to become a leader. And if you’re an atheist of any age, the Scouts don’t want anything to do with you. Sally Quinn of the Washington Post knows these policies make absolutely no sense and hammers it home in her latest column: [Click headline for more…] Read more
You may recall that, back in January, World Changers of Florida, Inc. held Bible distributions at a number of public high schools in Orange County. No student would be forced to take one, but there would be a table set up where interested students could take a copy if they wanted one: This alone could have been illegal, but the Orange County School Board agreed that non-Christian groups could also have a distribution if they wanted. The Central Florida Freethought Community called their bluff and planned their own giveaway. The only problem was that the atheist giveaways were heavily censored: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The fifth-graders at Mountain View Elementary School — a public school in Taylors, South Carolina — recently held their “graduation” ceremony inside of a church. But that wasn’t the worst part. The church was on the campus of North Greenville University, a school so Christian, it puts Christ right in its logo: But that wasn’t the worst part either. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Golden Valley City Council (in Minnesota), like so many other city councils, says the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of its meetings. But council member Steve Schmidgall suggested removing it at last night’s meeting, which turned out to be quite the story: [Click headline for more…] Read more