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.
Sikivu Hutchinson may be best known in the atheist community for her 2011 book Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars, a look at how religion has harmed the African-American community and how we can fix that. Now, she’s back with a collection of essays, Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels (Infidel Books, 2013), a book that challenges many of the ideas that constitute American culture: In the exclusive excerpt below, Hutchinson tackles the myth that people of color are somehow averse to fields of science: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Barna Group has just released their version of data on Millennials’ and faith. We know the story — about 30% of people under 30 have no religious affiliation — but Barna tries to put a Christian spin on it by characterizing those who are no longer part of the church as “spiritually homeless.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Riverside School District in Arkansas has held Christian prayers at its elementary school graduation ceremonies for years and no one ever complained about it… until now. First, let me give you a summary of every conversation that takes place when we revisit this issue: Christians: But… Tradition! Everyone else: It doesn’t matter. That still doesn’t make it right. Christians: But… we’re in the majority! Everyone else: A graduation is supposed to be for all students, not just Christian students. Christians: But… we have rights, too! Everyone else: No one’s taking your rights aw–oh, forget it. You’re hopeless. Now, back to Riverside. Instead of simply removing the prayer from the ceremony and getting on with it, district officials decided to cancel the entire event altogether. Because we all know you can’t graduate from sixth grade without Jesus handing you a diploma: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday, I posted about Antietam Recreation, a field trip destination for public school students that secretly proselytized to the children during a lunchtime “show.” After an article came out in the Herald-Mail about how the Washington County schools (in Maryland) were no longer going to go there for that reason and how the owners refused to change their program, the two sides have already reached a compromise: [Click headline for more…] Read more