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.
More background on the revision to the 2012 Democratic platform is here: Atheist groups are weighing on the decision to put “God” back into the Democratic Party’s platform: American Atheists: David Silverman, President of American Atheists said, “I am shocked that the Democratic Party caved in to the pressure they were receiving because of their choice to use inclusive language in their platform.” Silverman continues, “This decision makes the Democratic Party look less like the ‘party of all people’ and… Read more
Late Monday night, the Democratic Party released its platform. While it was great to see the inclusion of marriage equality, it was annoying to see how much faith was promoted: Faith. Faith has always been a central part of the American story, and it has been a driving force of progress and justice throughout our history. We know that our nation, our communities, and our lives are made vastly stronger and richer by faith and the countless acts of justice… Read more
The Frederick News-Post has a great article featuring Heatherly Hodges, the coordinator of the Frederick Secular Humanists (FRESH), and David Tamayo, founder and president of the Hispanic American Freethinkers: A social worker in Frederick, Hodges said she’s also trying to add a social and community outreach component to the group meetings. “My social work is important to me as much as atheism is,” she said. “All of that’s because I have faith in other people, in human beings, and what… Read more
Over the weekend, I was in Denver for the Atheist Alliance of America conference and Eugenie Scott, the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, was awarded with the (well-deserved) 2012 Richard Dawkins Award. While her speech isn’t yet available online, Dawkins’ introduction is: Dawkins points out, kindly, that she’s too soft on religion even if she’s not religious herself (“She respects religion in a way that I do not”), but admits there are strategic reasons for taking… Read more