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.
It’s an enjoyable ride, an energetic action movie with all the bells and whistles of early-21st-century cinema: Trendy (and pricy) 3-D glasses. Sexy, take-no-prisoners heroes. Monstrous reimaginings of your run-of-the-mill witch. Modern inventions gone medieval (think tasers, machine guns, and insulin injections to treat Hansel’s “sugar sickness”). Wry humour. CGI trolls named Edward. But it’s also a modern reimagining of an idea straight out of the history books. The hunting and execution of witches was real… and it usually involved targeting older, independent-living women as consorts of Satan. It was a way to punish women for acting in ways the male social leaders deemed inconsistent with the community’s Christian values. Read more
On October 12th, 2012, Richard Dawkins received the “Emperor Has No Clothes Award” at the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s annual convention. The award goes to someone who “make[s] known their dissent from religion.” The video of his talk just went up online and it’s worth a view. Dawkins begins speaking at the 14:30 mark and the transcript is available. In the speech, Dawkins talks about the problem with bad metaphors (and those who end up believing they are actually true): Read more
Created by Donald Wright (author of The Only Prayer I’ll Ever Pray: Let My People Go) in 2011, the National Day of Solidarity’s mission is to promote community and solidarity among blacks in America who identify as non-theists. In the face of the highly religious climate in the Black community, as well as the predominantly White presence in the freethought community, Black atheists often feel as if they are completely isolated. The Day of Solidarity encourages in-person fellowship, recognition of historic and current Black freethinkers, and the pursuit of Humanist strategies to solve the problems facing humanity — especially those affecting the Black community. Read more