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.
The North American Mission Board — a Southern Baptist group hell-bent on converting everyone — says the best way to reach out to the Sikh community following Sunday’s temple shooting is by getting them to drop their faith and adopt Christianity: “We have an opportunity now to turn this very sad situation into a life-changing encounter with the Gospel for Sikhs throughout North America,” [national coordinator for Muslim people groups and South Asians, Aslam] Masih said. (Wait… Southern Baptists have… Read more
After Sam Harris released what had to have been a lot of pent-up frustration at how people are mischaracterizing him for raising tough questions, Richard Dawkins has now come to his defense. Dawkins doesn’t get into the torture/profiling arguments or offer his take on who’s right or wrong, he just notes that Harris is doing a good thing by getting people to think some very uncomfortable thoughts. (Interestingly enough, Dawkins also lauds PZ Myers for the same thing.) [Sam Harris]… Read more
American Atheists is announcing that British philosopher and author A.C. Grayling will be the keynote speaker at the group’s 2013 conference in Austin, Texas: The 2013 Convention will host more than 1,500 atheists at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas, March 28-31, 2013, where Madalyn Murray O’Hair founded the organization 50 years ago. Silverman, stated, “We are thrilled to have Dr. Grayling join us for our national convention and 50th anniversary celebration. His contributions to the discussion about religion and… Read more
Just a day after NPR reported on the inaccuracies in Christian pseudo-historian David Barton’s very aptly-named book The Jefferson Lies, publisher Thomas Nelson has ceased publication and distribution of the book: “When the concerns came in, from multiple people, and that had weight too, we were trying to sort things out,” said Thomas Nelson Senior Vice President and Publisher Brian Hampton. “Were these matters of opinion? Were they differences of interpretation? But as we got into it, our conclusion was… Read more
… and guess what they found? I hope you’re sitting down for this. It turns out David Barton just pulls a lot of stuff out of his ass. (But they said it more NPR-ly.) Here’s one example where Barton says the Constitution was taken “verbatim” from Scripture: NPR’s Elise Hu and Barbara Bradley Hagerty beg to differ: Barton says here that it’s “absolutely no surprise that so many clauses in the Constitution are literal, direct quotations out of the Bible”… Read more