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.
A couple of weeks ago, a judge threw out American Atheists’ lawsuit against The National September 11 Memorial & Museum and its display of a 17-foot-tall steel beam cross. Judge Deborah Batts believed the giant cross was both “historical and secular” and not at all an endorsement of Christianity. (American Atheists didn’t see it that way and plans to appeal the ruling.) In case it’s not clear — and it’s usually not in reports of this lawsuit — the atheists are just as patriotic as anyone else and supportive of the memorial overall. They just didn’t want one religion to be promoted, whatever the reason, when families who were not Christian weren’t given the same opportunity. Earlier today, Mat Staver and Shawn Akers, both of the Christian legal group Liberty Counsel, were talking about the lawsuit on the “Faith and Freedom” radio program. Akers suggested that, while Muslim extremists brought down the Twin Towers, American Atheists is trying to “finish the job”: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution recently released the results of a survey on “Citizenship, Values, & Cultural Concerns” (PDF) and a couple of the findings are very notable for what they say about atheists. First: This is no surprise to anyone, but the percentage of young people (18-29) who have no religious affiliation is just leaps and bounds bigger than any other age group (31%). [Click headline for more…] Read more
North Carolina is back in the news for more religion-related idiocy. You might remember how the Rowan County Board of Commissioners have pretty much had only Christians delivering their invocations at meetings for a long time — specifically, “97% of Board meetings in the past five-and-a-half years have featured sectarian prayer,” according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Then, a week ago, Republican lawmakers filed a bill (since tabled) that would allow them to establish a state religion. Rep. Michele Presnell was one of the co-sponsors of that bill. Recently she wrote a letter to her constituents explaining why she supported this awful legislation: Read more