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.
I’m gonna save the Templeton Foundation and Professor John Martin Fischer a lot of time and money: There’s no evidence of an afterlife and no amount of research is going to change that. They won’t listen to me, of course, which is why Fischer just received a $5,000,000 grant (over three years) to study the afterlife: Anecdotal reports of glimpses of an afterlife abound, but there has been no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and… Read more
Adam Smith, the man who made news late this week for going through a Chick-fil-A drive-thru and chewing out the employee who gave him free water for working for a company owned by a bigot, has just released a video statement of his own. In it, he apologizes to Rachel, the person who served him. (Apparently, he apologized to her in person the next day but she, understandably, didn’t want to speak to him.) He also talks about how his… Read more
The school officials in Jamestown, Tennessee have a problem. Actually, they *had* a problem. Then they fixed the problem. Then they decided they didn’t like the solution so they screwed everything up again. I’ll back up. Pine Haven Elementary school used to display the Ten Commandments everywhere: “As far as I know, there was one in every classroom,” said the school’s custodian, Michell Waters. “They were in the hallways, so they were throughout the whole school.” Seemed like a good… Read more
I’m in a hotel with incredibly slow wi-fi so I can’t see the video for myself, but apparently, the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer is gleeful over the fact that Adam Smith lost his job after berating a Chick-fil-A employee the other day (the relevant part seems to begin around the 6:00 mark): If you hear any interesting parts, leave the timestamp and a summary in the comments! Read more
The Religious Right is just *begging* for the IRS to come after them. They want churches to become involved with politics. They want pastors to tell their congregations to vote for certain candidates. They want churches getting involved with political issues. It’s not subtle or under-the-radar either: Liberty Counsel is distributing over 100,000 copies of “Silence is Not an Option,” a DVD and printed material set informing pastors and churches about what is permissible regarding political and advocacy activity. “The… Read more