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.
Over the past few years, nearly every time I’ve posted about a new atheist billboard going up, someone (usually more than just one person) comments on how ugly the design of the billboard is. Why didn’t you hire a graphic designer?! they ask. The case for it seems to make sense: Thousands of dollars are spent on these billboards; why not spend a fraction of that on a professional designer? (It’s possible some designers would even volunteer to do it.) The billboards would look *so* much better than they do now. I don’t deny any of that. My argument against it is simple: None of that matters. Read more
Warren Jeffs, the man who is both the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and in prison for committing aggravated sexual assault on children, is still making decisions for his cult from behind bars. In fact, he’s now saying the end of the world will occur before the end of the year (2012). The cult-owned grocery store, the only one in Colorado City, has already shut down — since no one needs food if the world will cease to exist. Read more
Apparently, there’s an electronic billboard along I-84 in Nampa, Idaho that has offered “Highway Evangelism” — Bible verses or cheesy Christian sayings for passers-by — for the past 30 years. A few weeks ago, it malfunctioned, leaving a dark blank spot where the messages normally went. (God forgot to pay the electric bill, I guess.) Anyway, because the parts that displayed the message are now obsolete, the cost to replace them with modern equipment stands at well over $100,000: Read more
Since Illinois is on track to legalize gay marriage in the new year, Catholic leaders are freaking out. The Chicago Tribune’s Manya Brachear reports that they’re now taking a different approach to combatting the inevitable march of progress. Instead of resorting to arguments like, “BUT THE BIBLE SAYS SO” — an argument that tends to go nowhere — they’re making the case that gay marriage should be forbidden because it’s “unnatural”: Read more